


The Original Sin

by Go_get_Jakes_gun



Series: An Alternative Post Ragnarok [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abortion, Anger, Asshole!Loki, Birth, Buckle up, Consensual underage, Crying, Engagement, F/M, Flashbacks, Genderfluid Character, Hurt and comfort, Idiots in Love, Incest, Intersex Jotunn, Intersex Loki, Jealous!Loki, Jealous!Thor, M/M, Misogyny, Mpreg, Past Relationships, Plot, Plot With Porn, Porn, Pregnancy, Resentment, Self Loathing, Statutory Rape, This will be long, Unrequited Love, asshole!Thor, that is secretly requited, why can't they just have a proper heart to heart?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-09-26 07:30:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 24
Words: 29,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20385985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_get_Jakes_gun/pseuds/Go_get_Jakes_gun
Summary: As Loki and Thor track down Loki's baby daddy, the situation between them complicates itself further until they are forced to admit that everything is most certainly not okay. The situation only worsens once the father of Loki's child is revealed.How will the two brothers possibly move on from this? Is there a comeback, or have they passed the point of no return?Will Loki ever have his ex-lover back, or was all of this for nothing? Did-did he sleep with all of those men fornothing!?





	1. Chapter 1

The next few months involved Loki sending word to all the men whom he had bedded within the timeframe of conception. The responses were immediate.

_No way!_

_I couldn’t have impregnated you!_

_You’re a _ ** _dude_ ** _!_

_I’ve been barebacking for twenty years, I couldn’t have gotten you pregnant!_

Thor had raised an eyebrow at that one. Loki had merely rolled his eyes and told his brother to watch his porn if he so badly wished to know.

_I’m pretty sure we only buttfucked_

_Who’re you again?_

_We never had sex!_

To the last three he sent links to the porn videos they filmed together.

_You’ve made a lot of videos recently. It’s probably one of the other guys._

He couldn’t truly dispute that.

“Is there _any_ way to be certain?”

“Well, assuming that the baby has my seidr, it’ll probably call out to the father for an acknowledgement when in the same room as him.”

“And if not?”

“Well, then it wouldn’t have my shapeshifting abilities either, and we’d be able to find the father via DNA.”

“So we just wait until the baby is born and see what happens?”

“Unfortunately, we can’t. If the baby is born with my seidr, it will only reach out subconsciously as part of a bonding mechanism. This would stop once the baby was a few months old… and once the baby is out of me, I won’t be able to feel him or his magic, not like I can now while our magic is intertwined….”

“So once the baby is out of you, assuming that it has your seidr, we will never know the father.”

“Yes.”

Thor paused a moment and sighed, rubbing his temples and groaning. “So we have to visit every single person whom you’ve had sex with during the conception window and see if the baby responds.”

“Precisely.”

“… and what did you mean by ‘he’?”

“It… it feels like a son to me. I can’t be certain, of course, but to be fair, if it inherits my genes, Jotnar are single-sexed anyways.”

“And this won’t turn out like your last son?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know… like Sleipnir.”

Loki felt as though he had been slapped. “What do you mean ‘like Sleipnir’?”

“See! _This _is why I didn’t say anything! You’re so _sensitive_!”

“Of course I’m fucking sensitive! That’s my _son_ you’re talking about you arsehole!” Loki screamed at Thor.

“All I meant was is he going to come out as a creature or a person!” Thor defended.

“What kind of fucking question is that!? Do you think me some vain creature to love a babe more or less dependant on how it comes out looking!?” Loki had tears streaming down his face. “I’m not you, Thor. I’m not Odin, who was too weak to come clean about my heritage and instead encased me in a prison of flesh!”

“You’re a shapeshifter! You _chose_ that shape!” Thor reminded.

“That’s because I was never made aware that it wasn’t _my_ shape! That it was the shape of my foster family! Tell me, if this baby comes out Jotunn, would you force it to the same fate!? Make it ashamed of its heritage and then quickly rip the blanket out from under her as well!?”

“You’re unbearable, Loki. I’m calling it in for the night,” Thor stormed off.


	2. Chapter 2

They didn’t talk about it. A healthy relationship, even a familial one, would have seen them talk it out and resolve the issue, but that wasn’t what Odinsons did, now was it?

Stark had gathered them a list of residences for all the men. Time to find Loki’s baby daddy.

.

“Loki? Back for another round? Who’s this fella? Will he be joining us?” Joaquin grinned up at a murderous looking Thor.

“No, Joaquin, this is my brother.”

“Why are you he-”

“_Next_!”

.

“Ah, Loki! Look, as I was saying, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t’v-”

“_Next_!”

.

“Thought I recognised your hot ass around here! Though you look different with clothes on-”

“_Next_!”

.

After meeting each man and realising that they weren’t the baby’s father, Loki retired to his chambers as Thor nursed a pint of ale, tired after a long day of using Mjolnir to hoist them around the city (and to Paris for that one guy).

“No luck?” Tony asked, walking into the room.

“Not even a little. How on earth is this possible?”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll find whoever got your brother pregnant soon enough,” Tony blinked, realising his freudian slip. “Uhm, what I mean is-”

“No, it’s okay. I should have figured that you knew, you and Banner were the ones who first touted it, were you not?”

“Yeah, I guess we were… so he _really_ slept with all of those men?”

“In the timeframe the doctor gave us, yes.”

“Whoa whoa- was your doctor a human or an Asgardian- or Jotunn, whatever Loki is?”

“Human, why?”

“Thor, you guys are _aliens_! You can’t trust a _human_ doctor to come up with a conception date! You guys live _so much longer than us, _she would have based the baby’s development on that of a human. Quick, how long are Asgardians pregnant for?”

“11 months, though my mother was pregnant with me for 13, why do you ask?”

“Thor, humans are pregnant for _nine_ months, well, usually a bit less than that especially nowadays, you’re dealing with the wrong timeframe. I’m pretty sure Asgardian or whatever Loki’s race is babies develop differently. You should speak to somebody well versed in this.”

“Thank you, friend Stark, your advice has been most informative,” Thor breathed, summoning Mjolnir before using it to spirit himself away. Through a wall.

“Hey! We agreed no flying indoors!”

.

“Loki! Brother, I think I may know the problem!” Thor burst into Loki’s room.

“Thor… I-I’ve decided that I don’t want to find the father anymore.”

“What?” Thor stood in the doorway, shellshocked, before walking towards where his brother lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“I don’t want to find the father.”

“Loki are… are you considering aborting the baby?”

“No, Thor, no I’m not. I’m thinking of raising the baby on my own.”

“What?”

“Well think about it,” Loki suddenly grew defensive. “The baby and I will _long_ outlive the father, there really is no point in introducing the pair.”

“What will you say to the baby once it is old enough to understand that it has a father? What _name_ will you give the child!?”

“_Lokijarson_! Because this is _my_ son!” Loki growled. “And besides, I think that it is pretty clear that whoever the father is, he will want nothing to do with it!”

“He will have to! It is dishonourable for a man to leave a woma-”

“_I am _**_not_**_ a woman, Thor_!” Loki shouted at his brother.

“Of course you’re not! But the point still remains, it would be dishonourable of him to leave you in such a state!”

“Well this isn’t _Asgard_, Thor, it’s _earth_! Plenty of people on this planet are forced to rear children on their own, why can’t I?”

Thor groaned. “Alright. Fine. I know I can’t force you to, but know this Loki: one day your child will realise what you’ve done and they will likely react the same way that you did when you found out that you were adopted.”

.

Loki came to Thor in the middle of the night.

“Brother?” Thor asked, half in a daze, he really had drunk too much, never mind that it was 3 a.m.

“Thor?” Came Loki’s voice, sounding small and meek. “Thor… I don’t want my baby to hate me.”

Thor grunted, nodding, before opening up his blanket for his brother to wordlessly crawl into.


	3. Chapter 3

They went to visit Eir.

“I don’t know much about Jotunn pregnancies,” she warned, “But my mother left a book from when she was tending to your grandmother, Bestla.” She waved her hand and an image of the baby appeared. She flipped through her book. “Hmm… I see a nose beginning to form, as well as fingers… no sign of eyes yet but… oh, haha, the baby’s growing feet, so it’ll probably start kicking soon- ah! Here it is! Loki is about 6 to 7 months pregnant. Bestla apparently told my mother that Jotunn pregnancies last as long as Aesir ones… that’s good to note, so Vanir, Aesir and Jotnar all have the same gestation period,” she murmured the last bit, making a note in the journal. Ah, of course, she had helped to bring Thor into this world, so she would know the Vanir gestation period. “Do you want me to check if it’s a boy or a girl? The people will want to know?”

At Thor’s confused expression, she elaborated. “Well, this baby _is_ the heir now, isn’t it?”

Thor blushed while Loki rolled his eyes at his brother having had taken so long to understand a fairly obvious inference. “Wha- no! No, this child is not mine!”

“Oh? So where _is_ the father?”

“We don’t know yet,” Loki sat up. “We’re still looking.”

Eir raised an eyebrow in understanding. “I see. Well, I hope that this new information yields a lead of sorts.”

“Thank you Eir… and, we can trust your discretion?” Thor looked at her quizzically.

“Of course! I have served the Royal Family long before you were a thought in your father’s head, boy, I would never betray such a secret!”

“Thank you,” he kissed her hand. “Have a pleasant day! Loki! Come along now!” He ordered his brother up.

“And don’t forget to eat lots of salmon! It’s good for Jotunn babies!” She called out after them.

.

“OK, six to seven months, you can draw up your list now, we’ll leave in an hour.”

“No need. I only slept with two people in that timeframe, only one of which could have gotten me pregnant.”

“Who?” Thor prompted.

“The Grandmaster, En Dwi Gast, of course,” Loki sighed, slumping into the nearest armchair. “_Norns_, I need a drink!”

“Loki! You can’t-”

“_You don’t think I _**_know that_**_, Thor?_” Loki hissed unhappily.

Thor paused a moment. “So what you’re saying is that a man our father’s age is the father of your child?”

Loki looked up at him heatedly. “Our father is dead. And En is _much_ older than him!”

“‘En’?”

“We slept together for three months, what did _you_ think I called him?” Loki sneered. “We started out with sex on orgy ships… a month into it others could touch but only he could have my pussy-”

“_Loki_!”

“- or else he got angry and vaporised whoever tried with that melt-stick of his. Fairly romantic, come to think of it.”

Thor looked pissed. “Well, he’s dead isn’t he?”

“He’s in California right now. I saw one of his ads on T.V. the other day. He owns a casino there.”

Thor groaned, rubbing his temples. “Well then, let’s go and tell him the news.”

“Sure, let me just grab his address from Stark’s computer.” Loki got up and moved to the sitting room where Stark kept one of those supercomputers. Thor followed him. He had no clue why, though, it wasn’t like going out there alone would get him pregnant again.

“Oh! Uh! Hi Mr. Loki! Hi Mr.-”

Loki let out a gasp, clutching his stomach. Thor paled to the point where he looked dead. Peter stared, confused, at the pair. “What’s going on?” He asked.

“Well… turns out I was wrong, he could get me pregnant…” Loki whispered before the world went black.


	4. Chapter 4

“What the fuck do you mean Peter is the father of Loki’s baby!?” Tony’s yelling was the first thing that Loki heard when he roused. “That’s fucking impossible! They’ve never even slept together!”

“They have…” Thor sighed, rubbing his temples (wow, he was doing that a lot lately! Loki’s latest disaster had aged him half a millennium, he swore). “A few months ago I walked in on them-”

“And you didn’t do anything!? You didn’t stop it!”

“I did! But they’d already finished their first round! Clearly that was enough!”

“No, that’s impossible!” Tony paced. “Maybe what Loki felt was a fluke! Maybe he’s _lying!? _He’s kind of the god of those!”

“Why lie about this?”

“Well, the alternative was that madman from Sakaar, wasn’t it?”

Loki chose the moment to pipe up. “You think I would put the burden of a child on the wrong parent? You think I _want_ Peter to be the father, a boy who is but a child himself?”

“You _raped _him!” Tony accused, clearly fired up.

“I assure you, Stark, the spider child was very, _very_ consensual- and a fast learner,” Loki hummed. At Tony’s increasingly angry expression, he decided to ask, “Where is the boy, anyways?”

“I sent him home, predator. He’s not allowed near you and vice versa,” Tony growled. “And what you did was _statutory rape! _Peter is _sixteen_! He can not properly give consent! What you did was _rape_!”

“Can’t give consent at _sixteen_? Oh please, even _I’d_ lost my virginity by then!” Loki rolled his eyes.

Tony was furious. Before he could do something that he would regret, he simply stormed out of the room and left Thor and Loki alone.

Loki got up.

“Brother, what are you doing?” Thor frowned.

“I’m leaving.”

“Where will you go?”

“Anywhere but here, Thor, anywhere but here.”

.

Well, now that he knew who the baby’s father was, he supposed he could raise it on his own. Seriously, how on earth was that child going to help him raise his son?

He had money from when he did porn. More than enough to bide him by until his child was born.

He whipped out the phone that he’d bought when he was just starting out in the porn industry, and googled a list of wealthy businessmen who owned apartment complexes… hmmm… Mornington Glenns seemed like a nice apartment complex. He googled apartments for rent and looked for one in that building. Bingo! That was his now! He scheduled a meeting with a real estate office and proceeded to make his way to the building.

.

Her name was Brittany, and the moment that she turned the lock he magicked away her memory of their encounter and used his seidr to make the apartment invisible. Ta da! He then locked the door to his new apartment and sat down on the show-furniture. Hmmm… pretty fancy… really, why spend money replacing this nice set up? He went onto his phone and looked up baby supplies. He’d be needing them in six months, and Norns knew that kind of time went by in the blink of an eye.

.

Thor was distressed. He couldn’t find his brother anywhere. Right now he was in the middle of a dangerous game, hoping that Loki would call his name thereby breaking the enchantment on wherever he was hiding.

His stupid, _stupid_ brother. Honestly, sometimes Loki made him look like the smart brother.

He’d been looking for five days now. Surely Loki wouldn’t be so stupid as to risk the child’s health by not going to see Eir. Loki was a prince of Asgard, that baby was _royalty_, weren’t there laws against intentionally harming royals or something?

He glanced at his watch and groaned. _Urgh_, and now he was running late for his date with Jane! They were going to an astrophysics show at the Museum of Natural History and she would _kill_ _him_ if he were late!

He glanced at the box on his wardrobe… maybe not tonight.


	5. Chapter 5

Loki did make it to the next appointment. Thor was there waiting for him.

“Where have you been?” He hissed.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m in Manhattan.”

“What if you are in danger?”

“Then I will _call you_,” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Welcome, boys,” Eir smiled. “Take a seat,” she gestured Loki to the bed and Thor to the chair beside it. “Seven months! You’re already halfway through your pregnancy. At this stage, they were able to tell the gender of Odin. Would you like us to tell the gender of yours?”

“I already know that it’s a girl,” Loki shrugged.

Thor frowned. “I thought you said that it was a boy.”

“It’s called _gender fluidity_, Thor, the baby is half Jotunn, you can’t honestly be surprised,” he huffed. “You of all people know that we are not divided into a sexual binary.”

Thor brushed his brother’s comment aside. “So the child is both then?”

Eir hummed, intrigued. “Well, _I_ can’t really run a test on that here in the medical wing, but what I _can_ tell you is that your baby is developing healthily… though it is growing a bit faster than a normal Jotunn baby. This might be due to the baby’s mixed heritage? Have you managed to pinpoint the person responsible?”

“Yes. He is a Midgardian, and indeed their pregnancies are only nine months long.”

“Ahhh… well, expect his delivery date a little bit sooner then. Probably around the tenth or eleventh month.”

“And the baby won’t be inconvenienced by this?” Loki asked, curious.

“No, no! It is a mixed-breed baby! Their genes tend to be a bit stronger than ours. Though I suppose that the real question should be whether or not it inherits your lifespan.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, as its father _is_ from Midgard, it may have a shorter lifespan than, say, your own.”

Cold fear washed over Loki. “Are-are you saying that I may have to bury my child?”

“_May_ being the keyword, but yes, that is a possibility,” Eir conceded. “Though it is just as likely that the baby will inherit your longer lifespan. We have no real evidence as to how this works. If one’s lifespan being longer is a dominant gene it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Loki nodded numbly. He hadn’t thought of outliving his child. He’d never had to, Svadilfari had once upon a time been a Jotunn though was now under an unbreakable curse, and therefore had had a long lifespan of his own, so when Sleipnir was born that hadn’t been a fear.

“Brother, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes, Thor, I’m fine, I just need to be alone for a little while,” Loki brushed his brothers hands away and took off.

‘But you’ve been alone for an entire month,’ Thor thought bitterly.

.

“Heimdall!” Loki greeted.

“My prince,” Heimdall nodded in greeting. “What brings you here?”

“I was hoping to use the Bifrost.” It had taken three months and a lot of magic, but they _had_ managed to fix it.

“Oh? And where would you be heading off to?”

“Vanaheim.”

“Vanaheim?”

“Yes.”

Heimdall nodded. “Oh… I see congratulations are in order.”

“Thank you.”

Yes, Loki had helped save Asgard, but that hadn’t eased the tension between the pair in the slightest. Loki felt relief flood him as he felt the familiar suck-and-pull of the Rainbow Bridge. He landed on Vanaheim.

He couldn’t shapeshift. He remembered as much from his pregnancy with Sleipnir. It was why he was so careful to not have sex during his heat, he _hated_ being stuck in one form.

He allowed his seidr to guide him to his son.

“Mother,” Sleipnir neighed. Thank the Norns for the Allspeak.

“Son,” Loki nodded, before turning to the large, black stallion beside Sleipnir. “Svadilfari. It has… been a while.”

Svadilfari said nothing to that, merely rolling his eyes. “You’re pregnant,” he accused.

“Well yes, yes I am,” Loki sighed.

“Who’s the father?”

“An Earthling.”

“Why are you here?” Sleipnir asked, finally, unable to withstand the animosity between his parents.

“I wished to see you,” Loki rubbed the spot behind Sleipnir’s ear that he knew made him neigh.

“Am I having a brother or a sister?”

“Both.”

“You’re having _twins_!?” Sleipnir asked, awe evident in his whinny.

“No, my sweet. I am Jotunn, we are dual sexed beings. I’m assuming that this child is going to be born with the ability to change its sex.”

“That’s so cool! Did uncle Thor come with you?” Sleipnir looked around. “Or grandma or grandpa?”

“No, my little apple-muncher,” Loki smiled fondly at his son. “Your grandparents are both dead, and your uncle is on Midgard helping to set up Asgardia.”

“What’s wrong with Asgard as it stands?” Svadilfari huffed.

“It was destroyed,” Loki said through gritted teeth.

“I don’t suppose that you had a hand in that?”

“As a matter of fact I did.”

“Mother, father, _please_ stop fighting!” Sleipnir begged. “Why can’t we ever try to get along as a family?”

_‘Oh, gee, son, I don’t know, maybe it’s because your father is a _**_rapist_**?’ Loki scowled internally. Neither he nor Svadilfari said a word, which seemed to make Sleipnir content.

.

“Where have you been?” Thor asked, having seen Loki for the first time in a month at Eir’s once more.

“I spent the month with Sleipnir on Vanaheim.”

“Oh,” Thor wrinkled his nose, “Svadilfari wasn’t there, was he?”

“He was.”

“Oh.”

The baby was doing well for an eight month old, though it appeared that it had been tossing and turning around a lot in Loki’s womb. Eir put Loki on bedrest and advised him not to use the Bifrost until the baby was born.

.

Loki only let Thor into his apartment because it was midnight and he was desperate for seven hot dogs and a deer carcass.

Thor sat with his brother, rubbing his feet and trying not to vomit as Loki begun to put ‘ketchup’ onto the bones and tucked in.

“Peter wants to see you,” Thor commented.

“Hmm?”

“Stark tried to refuse it at first, but he came around. He wants to see you… wants to be there for you and the baby.”

“He’s a baby himself, Thor, he’s too young to raise a child.”

“So were you.”

“_I_ didn’t, our parents and a stablehand did.”

“How is Svadilfari, anyways?”

“You really think I talked to the old rapist?” Loki sighed. “He’s doing alright. Him and Sleipnir get along _famously_.” Thor noted the jealous tone Loki’s voice had taken.

“Well that’s good, isn’t it? That despite what happened between you two your child wasn’t really affected?”

“‘What happened between us’? Thor, Svadilfari’s not some dumb horse, he has impulse control. He knew what he was doing,” Loki hissed at Thor, tears in his eyes, “And yet he constantly acts like _I’m_ the one in the wrong here!”

“Hey… shhh… shh… I know. Do you want me to help you get into bed?”

“Yes please.” His stomach, by this point, was swollen. Were he Midgardian, it would look as though he were six months pregnant.

As Thor tucked his brother in and waited for him to fall asleep, he was faintly aware that his phone had been buzzing all night long.


	6. Chapter 6

“You’re pregnant with my baby,” Peter gaped. All of a sudden he was giving Loki a huge hug.

Stark and Thor were there to supervise. That had been a key part of the negotiation.

“Yes,” Loki nodded, “I am.”

“I’m going to be a dad!”

“Yes, you are.”

“I can't believe I got you pregnant,” Peter laughed shyly, running a hand through his hair. "When's the baby due?"

“We're not sure," Loki admitted, “Being a half-breed has complicated things, but sometime in the next season."

"I graduate from high school in a few days. I'm going to take a gap year before university and help you raise the baby.”

Loki heard Stark mutter something under his breath to the tune of ‘like hell you are.’ But regardless, he shook his head. “I’m unsure that that is a good idea, Peter.”

“What do you mean?” Peter looked hurt.

“You’re still a child. I understand that you want to be involved in your daughter’s life, but you mortals are only around so long, it is likely that she will age as an Asgardian: 5 years of childhood followed by 1000 of teenage-hood, and finally 10000000 as an adult before she finally hits his old age.”

“His?”

“Sorry, the baby is gender fluid and they just swapped,” Loki explained. “Anyways, while I don’t especially mind you being a part of the child’s life, it makes more sense for you to carry on with yours.”

From the corner of his eye, Loki noted that Stark looked mildly impressed by his decision.

“But… but doesn’t the baby need a father?” Now it was Thor’s turn to look smug.

“It does, and you can still be involved, but it would do you more harm than good to be around all the time. Might I suggest spending weekends with the baby? You could still lead a perfectly normal life and be around him, but you’d also be able to carry on with your own.”

Peter looked sad but eventually nodded. “Can I at least spend my summer break helping you with your pregnancy?”

“Sure, Peter, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

.

Thor growled before Loki even noticed the three Jotnar come in. One was rather short but had a dangerous presence about him, the other two were dressed in the traditional, scanty ceremonial clothes the Jotnar wore.

“We come in peace, ruler of Asgardia,” their leader raised his hand. “My name is Prince Byleistr Laufeyson,” Loki prickled up, “We heard that Asgard had a new king and thought it time to renew the peace treaty between our two lands.”

“That… is acceptable. Who is your chief negotiator?”

“That would be Jarnsaxa of the Nine. Yours?”

“Loki Odinson, of Asgard, my brother,” Thor gestured to his terrified brother. Whoo… breathe in, breathe out, you left with Laufey so quickly that there is a chance that Byleistr has no clue who you are.

“Lo-ki,” the man contemplated. “I see. Shall we begin?”

.

“The old treaty was rather… one-sided,” Jarnsaxa explained. “And after Asgard almost _destroyed_ Jotunheim, we were thinking that this time it would be better if we each were to trade a valued possession.”

“Asgard’s vault was destroyed with everything in it. We have nothing valuable to trade.”

The guard who had accompanied them, Angrboda, looked down at Loki’s slight belly-bulge. “I think we can find something.”

Thor and Valkyrie each placed a hand on Loki’s shoulder. “No, not a chance,” Valkyrie snarled.

“And why ever not? Wards are a common exchange,” Angrboda shrugged.

Thor decided to change the subject. “What does Jotunheim even have to trade?”

“Well,” Byleistr shrugged, “If your brother is willing to part with his babe, you could have one of mine? A second-prince’s child for another second-prince’s child.”

“No deal. Look, forget peace tokens for a moment, our people have no relationship whatsoever at the moment. Why don’t we start with a _trade deal_ before we jump to swapping children,” Loki said. “What resources is Jotunheim in need of?”

“Well we’re in the midst of a drought, and our soil has been growing more and more infertile,” Jarnsaxa shrugged.

“I see. Well, we’ll send Thor over there to fix that up for you. In return, Asgard asks for your aid in finding a new planet to settle on.”

The negotiations lasted _hours_. They’d trade Asgardian silk, Asgardian jewellery, sugar, wheat and majicks in exchange for rice, barley, meat, and- Byleistr had frowned at this one- a Jotunn biology book.

“Why do you need that?” He had frowned.

“Well, as you know, our grandfather was Jotunn and we believe his genes have passed down to Loki,” Thor lied easily, a side-effect of prolonged exposure to his brother, “And since this is his first child in his normal form we really don’t know much about what to expect this pregnancy.”

Byleistr contemplated this before shaking his head. “A book won’t be good enough, we don’t keep any that would be easy for you to understand. Keep ‘Boda, he’d be able to assist you.”

Angrboda looked up at this and frowned. “I thought that diplomatic exchanges were supposed to be met with recompense?”

“Well, if King Thor will be spending much of his time on Jotunheim replenishing the land, this is the least that we can do,” Byleistr shrugged.

They wrapped up the meeting with dinner, and then two of the Jotnar went back and all that was left to remember the visit aside from the drawn up agreement, was one slightly-peeved Jotunn.

.

“I’m telling you, ‘Blindi, I saw him with my own eyes!”

“I don’t doubt you, but I have no idea what you wish us to do with him.”

“He’s a father-murderer! _Our_ father’s murderer!”

“Be that as it may, it would not do well to demand his head. Not at this stage, at least.”

“I have ‘Boda keeping watch over him.”

“… Byleistr… what have you done?”

“I did what I had to do! Once his baby is born, Angrboda will snatch the thing away and we can extract our vengeance!”

“Now is not the time to be so petty!” Helblindi growled, rubbing his temples. “Byleistr, what you have done could incite a _war_ against us!”

“Then we’ll kill them both! Asgard is _nothing_ without its princes. Hell, it’s nothing as it currently stands! The time is right, when their golden prince comes here in an act of trust, we could kill him off.”

“I have a better idea…” Helblindi perked his head up. “You’re right. The Odinsons… well, the Odinson and the one Laufeyson, are both _incredibly_ powerful… why not seduce them?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Why not have Jarnsaxa, who will undoubtedly be spending much time guiding Thor around the realm, seduce the man and bear his child for us, and have our sweetest little brother get bred by Angrboda?”

“… I must admit, brother, that’s a crafty plan, but Loki is _already_ pregnant.”

“Not for long. Within a year he’ll be breedable once more, and that’s when Angrboda will swoop in.”

“How will he convince Loki to keep him around for that time span?”

“A) to make sure that the child is, indeed, healthy, and b) under the guise that he is teaching Loki seidr.”

.

“Who’s the father, if I might ask?” Angrboda hummed.

“A Midgardian named Peter, he will be swinging around sometime this weekend.”

“A Midgardian?” Angrboda wrinkled his nose. “I can’t believe a prince of Asgard stooped low enough to sleep with a _Midgardian_. What would Queen Frigga have thought?”

“I was unaware the two of you were so close that you cared for her opinion? Or that you two had ever met,” Loki said, mockingly, masking the hurt that had surfaced at the mention of his late mother.

“Alright, alright. No need to be so sensitive,” Angrboda smirked. “Have your breasts begun to develop? They’ll get sore at times, I could teach you some massages to ease the ache.”

“They haven’t, I’m good,” Loki said, not sure how willing he was to let the man put his hands anywhere near his body. This hadn’t been a good idea. He wondered if it would be too late to send him back.

“I’m going to bed,” Angrboda left the room.

“Goodnight.”


	7. Chapter 7

** _1000 AD, Asgard_ **

_Loki slipped out of his brother’s bed the moment he felt morning’s first rays hit his eyes. Nobody could know what they had done. No one._

_When he reached back to his chambers he took a shower. He laved soap gently over all of the marks that Thor had left upon him the previous night. Purpling bruises leading down his sides before abruptly stopping and dipping beneath his thighs. He moaned as he traced their trail, remembering how Thor had gone for his cunt the night before._

_Thor had just returned from a hunting trip. He tended to be especially horny after those._

_Loki slipped out of his shower and used a towel to dry himself. He snapped his fingers and instantly his leathers were back on. Time to start a new day._

**Present Day, Midgard**

Loki stared at the odd, runt of a Jotun walking around his apartment. It was a three bedroom one, so there was plenty of room, but still… there was something off about the man.

For starters, he refused to cast a glamour over himself to hide his blue skin from any Midgardians who may see him. Then, he turned all of the a.c.s in the apartment up to full blast ‘because it was too hot’. Now, he was walking around in the usual Jotun bedleh that Thor had brought back after his last trip to Jotunheim, sent by Jarnsaxa who happened to apparently be this man’s friend.

“Don’t pout, cold air is good for the baby.”

“If birthing this child is anything like birthing Sleipnir, it will be born in Asgardian skin.”

“You said the baby was a shapeshifter as yourself.”

“Yes, but the very fact that it can switch genders clues me in to the fact that it is definitely not a full-Jotun baby.”

“Do you have any… symptoms?”

“Symptoms?”

“Well, during the last stages of pregnancy, it’s common amongst Jotnar to seek comfort. Many nest and seek out their mates.”

“Well, I have none of that… I’m starting to think that this is going to be more like an Aesir pregnancy.”

The doorbell rang.

“Who is that?” Angrboda asked, turning to the door.

“Peter, the baby’s father,” Loki opened the door. “Peter, welcome.”

“Hi, Mr. Loki!”

“Peter, I’m carrying your child, we’ve had sex, you _can_ just call me ‘Loki’.” Peter blushed.

“_This_ is the father of one of Odin’s grandchildren?” Angrboda wrinkled his nose.

“M- uh, Loki, who is this?”

“This is my live-in midwife, Angrboda. He’s here as part of peace negotiations with Jotunheim, since no one in Asgardia is really qualified to help me along with this.”

“Oh.”

Peter spent three hours at the apartment with them before going.

“I can’t believe that you bedded a child.”

“Peter was sixteen at the time of conception, he was hardly a ‘child’.”

“He’ll hate you when he finds out that you made up the timeline.”

“It makes no difference to me. No matter how this could have gone, he never truly would have been able to help parent this child.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“This baby will be born with my seidr. Parker is a _mortal_.”

“He has powers!”

“I find it hard to see how the ability to climb a wall will help raise this baby.”

“And what should happen if the baby is born with _his_ powers? Wouldn’t you want it to be able to learn from him?”

“I doubt his powers are as complicated to master as seidr, and I’m sure that the child can learn them on their own.”

Angrboda barked out a laugh at this. “Wow, you’re really arrogant aren’t you?” He chortled.

Loki rolled his eyes. “As a fellow Seid-madr, you should of all people should know that the manipulation of fate is a _much_ harder practice.”

“How would I when I’ve never had the other man’s powers? Have _you_ wielded his powers?”

“No,” Loki admitted.

“Well, then I’d call your presumption _arrogant.”_

_“_Well if a mortal can do it then how hard could it truly be?”

“You realise that that applies to you too, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“‘If a mortal can do it then how hard could it truly be?’” Angrboda mocked, making a penis entering a vagina gesture with his hands.

Loki was furious. “How dare you make such gestures towards a prince of Asgard!”

“Oh, ‘Asgard’ was it?” Angrboda rolled his eyes. “You’re not fooling anyone, Laufeyson.”

Loki froze. Oh no. If Angrboda knew… then that meant that Byleistr had known as well. And that would mean that Thor, who was currently on Jotunheim, was in _deep_ shit!

“What is this!? What have you planned!? What are you-you _monsters_ going to do with my brother!?” Loki summoned a knife. “_Answer me!_”

“Nothing. There is no danger!”

“Ha, nice try! You wouldn’t have had to be deceptive if you weren’t trying to trick us! What have you done with my brother!?” His seidr flared, trapping Angrboda in a chair and wrapping a nearby curtain around him. “Where is Thor!?”

“He’d be here right now. He only helps us during the days!” Angrboda gasped in an attempt to breathe. “And we weren’t deceptive, we merely didn’t correct your brother’s assertion that you were an Odinson because we were here on _peace talks_, of course we understand that you wish to not be identified as Jotun- that’s _fine_ with us! I’m sorry that you’re such a poisonous person that you take basic decency as a plot against you!”

Loki stood for a moment, before allowing the curtain back into its place. He walked into his bedroom and closed the door.

“Thor, Thor, can you hear me?” He said aloud.

He waited a few moments. There was a knock at the door. Angrboda presumably opened it, because within moments Thor was in his bedroom.

“You called me, Loki, what is it- do you need food? Something to drink? A massage?- ooh! Is it the baby? Is it coming early? Is it making you uncomfortable!? Did it start one of those kicking fits again!? Do you want me to make a storm to cool it down- I could make it rain in the room if you want!” Thor proceeded to babble on about possible scenarios for why Loki might need him. He’d gotten rather antsy ever since Angrboda had moved in with Loki.

“No, brother. The Jotnar _know.”_

_“_What do you mean?”

“They know who I am, Thor, they’re playing us.”

“What?”

“They’re playing us! That’s why they didn’t mention or acknowledge that I’m really Odin’s son!”

“Loki…”

Loki felt as though he’d been smacked in the face. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

Well, could anyone truly blame Thor? Loki _did_ tend to be sensitive about his parentage.

“Well, brother, sometimes you get a little… emotional about your parentage.”

Loki let out a semi-maniacal laugh. “Norns! You-you’re _serious_! You honestly think that my worry for your safety is related to a bad decision I made _right after finding out that I was adopted_!? Thor- how on earth can you be so blind!? What kind of arrogant-” he went on a rant. The rant lasted an hour. Thor just watched on sheepishly, lamenting his decision to bring up Loki’s personal biases. He could be back home with Jane right now.

.

In his own room, Angrboda spoke into a mirror. “Step one is complete. It’s time to begin step two.”


	8. Chapter 8

Loki refused to admit that his breasts were in pain, or that they were breasts for that matter. Angrboda had mentioned teaching him how to rub them to soothe them, and while Loki was _never_ going to take him up on that, it _did_ mean that there were ways to rub them in which to soothe them.

After eight unsuccessful attempts, and a rather cranky lunch during which Angrboda looked annoyingly smug, Loki resolved to simply binding them and dealing with the pain.

He then, after realising that he _couldn’t_ deal with the pain, proceeded to visit Eir. She looked baffled and tried three rubs for lactating Aesir women. None of them worked. There also seemed to be no mention of what to do in her mother’s journal, apparently Bestla had opted to bear the pain, claiming that it would make the baby stronger. Well, given how Odin turned out, she hadn’t entirely been wrong about that.

But Loki couldn’t take it, and with an aching heart- or, rather, skin above the heart- he went to see Angrboda.

Angrboda fetched something and bade him lie down. It was a cream with a… smell… a soothing smell… Angrboda got on the bed behind him and sat on his knees, creating a gap between his legs and placing Loki’s head there.

Loki was blushing as Angrboda removed Loki’s top. This was all disturbingly intimate, not at all helped by the fact that the Jotnar wore almost no clothes. Was he… wait… was he getting _turned on_ by this?

Angrboda took some of the cream on his hands and rubbed them together. “First lather your hands in cream, then reach under the breast tissue,” he cupped Loki’s breasts from underneath, “like so. Then rub and reach out with your thumb to ease the nipples as well,” he demonstrated on Loki. “Feeling better?”

“Yuh- _mmm_,” Loki nodded, breathlessly, it felt so good. Angrboda chuckled as Loki blushed.

“Fear not, young prince, that is a perfectly rational reaction to this type of massage. Usually this is performed by the father of the babe, but since you insist on keeping him away from you…” Angrboda trailed off. “Though I must admit, I am surprised that it took you this long to come to me.”

“I heard the massage made the baby come out weak.”

Angrboda barked out a laugh. “Where in the Nine did you hear that? That’s such a lie!”

And now Loki was blushing for a whole other reason. “Thank you,” he said, getting up. Angrboda handed Loki the tub of cream and Loki thanked him again before heading off to his rooms- er, _room_. Goodness, living like a commoner was _ghastly_.

.

Things had improved considerably between Angrboda and Loki since then. So much so that even Peter was confused by it when he walked in on Saturday with his bags in hand.

“You can share my room,” Loki shrugged. “We don’t have a third bed.”

That was fine with Peter. Plus, he’d get to be close to the baby at all times.

“You’re progressing quickly,” Angrboda said, leaning down and running his hands over Loki’s belly before smelling it. “Yes… I’d expect the baby sometime this week.”

“It’s only been ten months.”

“For a hybrid that’s alright. But you should take it easy. I’d advise bedrest until then.”

When Loki turned back to Peter, the boy was bouncing on his heels excitedly. Urgh. _Teenagers. _Then again, that enthusiasm tended to be quite enjoyable in… no. Nope. Stark had been clear- do _not_ sleep with the spider boy. Though… to be fair… he would be over the age of consent in a few weeks. And he _did_ have that delightful penis that was arguably better than Loki’s own fingers.

In a few weeks, he supposed.

.

The spider boy would not stop touching Loki's stomach. It was annoying.

Thor was on Jotunheim as per the treaty. Loki couldn't stop worrying about his brother.

.

“Wow, you're good at making things fertile," Angrboda joked as he and Thor walked across fields to look for infertile patches. For the first time in a long time there was _wheat_ growing in Jotunheim. Odin’s war had crippled them, Loki’s actions had left them for _dead_.

“I guess you could say that,” Thor chuckled.

“So your brother is about to have a child… what about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you have any children?”

“No. Well, none to my knowledge,” he admitted.

"To your knowledge?" Jarnsaxa smirked.

"I bed a great number of women,” Thor shrugged, "Men too, but men can't get pregnant. Um, er, you know, amongst most races,” Thor squirmed uncomfortably as he realised the implications of his statement. Thankfully, Jarnsaxa seemed to take it in jest.

“I understand what you mean. Tell me, Thunderer, would you care to expand your knowledge of this great land?”

“How so?”

“Rö, Kari and I are going to a bar tonight. Would you care to join us?”

It was tempting. But if he were to get drunk, and Loki were to call him, he wouldn’t be able to hear his brother.

“Not tonight, I’m afraid. I don’t want to get too drunk when Loki could be due any moment.”

“Ah, of course,” Jarnsaxa’s eyes narrowed.

.

“Breathe in and out,” Angrboda soothed.

“_Thoooooooooooorrrr!!!_” Peter shouted outside the room.

He’d started to feel mild contractions a few hours ago, but knew from birthing Sleipnir that he’d be a while.

His water had broken, and he had been six centimetres dilated by the time he’d sought out ‘Boda, who’d been having tea with Peter.

He heard a crash and cursed. He’d have to fix the door later. Seriously, he couldn’t believe his brother’s disregard for- _ah_\- private property.

“Brother,” Peter and Thor both entered the room. “How far along is he?” He asked.

“An hour or two away from delivering,” Loki's eyes widened. Angrboda rubbed his leg soothingly. "Brace yourself, the baby will be here soon."

Peter reached for Loki's hand as a sign of comfort. Loki broke it on the first squeeze. While Peter nursed his hand, Thor took Loki’s hand. Good, this one would be less likely to break.

“This reminds me of the time you got stitches put in after that Bilgesnipe nearly severed your arm,” Thor laughed.

“You mean when you challenged me to fight one ‘without my woman’s craft’?” Loki gasped as another contraction hit him.

“Aye. You almost did it too.”

“Well, at least after Sleipnir I lost my need to prove anything to you,” Loki laughed bitterly.

“Loki, now is not the time.”

“Oh, what better a time than this?”

“Loki, you’re nervous. I know you’ve been nervous ever since you found out this child would develop differently. Just relax.”

Loki laughed at that. “Oh wow, how classic of you to dismiss my feelings! Remember how that ended _last time_?”

Thor ignored his brother.

After a gruelling half hour, Angrboda spotted the head. Five minutes and Thor’s somehow-broken-hand later, Loki and Peter’s baby’s cries graced the world.

“What shall we name… her?” Loki asked, cradling his newborn daughter.

“Mary?” Peter asked. “Mary Frigga… er… are we using Aesir naming standards or…?”

“For Midgard’s sake we can call her Mary Frigga Parker. But on Asgard it would be Mary Frigga Petersdottir or Mary Frigga Lokijardottir. And obviously the ‘dottir’ would change to son if she swapped to a he.”

Peter nodded.

Mary did not have a full head of hair when she was born. No. She was born bald and toothless like most babies. And she kept refusing to open her eyes. Damn those tv shows were wrong.

What concerned Loki the most was that she did not cry. Oh, he could feel her heartbeat, so he knew that she was alive, but she wasn’t crying.

“Is something wrong?” He looked to Angrboda, worried.

Angrboda shrugged. “I have never delivered a runt’s child. Only time will tell.”

.

The next morning, when Loki went to pick Mary up from the crib, she screamed. Frowning, he rocked her in his arms, but that only resulted in more screaming. Peter was up in an instant.

“What happened- is something wrong?” Peter asked, anxiously.

“No, she-she just won’t stop _screaming_!” Loki hissed as Mary smacked him in the face with her arm as she writhed in his hands.

“Here,” Peter took her from him, “Now you can cast your seidr and… and…” Mary had stopped screaming the moment that she was in Peter’s hands. She blinked sleepily up at him, even though her eyes couldn’t really see yet and made a sucking motion. “Oh… I think she’s hungry. I think she just wants your milk… have you started, you know, lactating yet?”

“Last night,” Loki removed his shirt, “C’mere.”

The moment Loki’s hand touched her she screamed again, her face scrunching up and going red. Loki withdrew his hand as though he’d been bitten. “What the-?”


	9. Chapter 9

Thor woke up (he’d slept on the couch) to a baby’s cries. And once the baby stopped crying, his brother walked out in a sour mood. “Oh, you’re up.”

“Brother, what is the matter?”

“Nothing, Thor, nothing.

Angrboda was in the kitchen making eggs. “How is the baby doing?”

“Alright.”

“Then why are you running away from her? You should still be in bed. With her.”

Loki scowled. “Mind your business.”

“I’m in charge of you and your child’s welfare, this _is _my business.”

“The baby is _fine_, she is with her father!”

Angrboda nodded before going back to his eggs. “Has she latched yet?”

“What?”

“The baby. Has she suckled from you?”

“Yes, of course!” Loki lied.

“Ah,” Angrboda said. Loki hated how smug he sounded. “OK.”

.

Two days later and the situation still hadn’t improved. Thor walked in on his brother crying in a bathroom.

“Loki, what is the matter?”

“My daughter _hates me_!” Loki sobbed.

Thor was baffled by this. “Of course she doesn’t,” he soothed, having no concept whatsoever of what was going on.

“Yes she does!” He wailed. “She-she won’t even let me touch her- she starts screaming when I touch her!”

Thor rolled his eyes, sitting down next to his brother, the irony of being in this position exactly a half year ago not lost on him.

“Loki, brother, listen, I’m sure that whatever this is is something innocent. Have you talked to Angrboda about it?”

Loki whimpered and shook his head. “No.”

“Well then maybe you should.”

“But I don’t trust him.”

"Loki," Thor sighed. “Look, I understand that you've been sceptical of him since you found out that the Jotnar knew that you were Laufey's son, but answer me this: if they knew in advance, then why would your own brother set you up? Especially in your vulnerable state?”

“Oh, gee, I don’t know, Thor, who could ever fathom one brother endangering another,” Loki rolled his eyes at his brother. “And I _killed_ their father- _our_ father, since I’m one of them. Remember how you reacted to Odin’s death-”

“Father’s death,” Thor murmured.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Loki brushed it off, “the point is that _you_ were going to harm me, maybe not kill me, but definitely harm me, and we were _raised_ as brothers. I was not raised with either Helblindi nor Byleistr. I’m _nothing_ to them in terms of kin.”

Thor brushed off Loki’s comment about their father. Or well, at least he tried to.

“He was our father, Loki, and you killed him.”

“Wh-”

“So instead of being a brat about it, the least that you could do is acknowledge that without _our father_, you would be _dead!_”

“You think I don’t know that?” Loki hissed. “Or do you delight in reminding me that, had things gone differently that day, you might have had a _real_ brother, one you could have _actually_ loved?”

“What!? What are you- of course I-“

“What? You ‘love’ me? Is that what it is, Thor? Am I your brother now? Because for a rather significant part of our youth-”

“Loki-”

“-we did things that ‘brothers’ aren’t _supposed _to do-”

“-_Brother-”_

_“_Maybe you’ve already forgotten about the night before your coronation but I have-”

“_Loki _**_enough_**!” Thor looked furious. “You want to know why your baby doesn’t wish to be held by you?” Thor hissed, his voice full of poison. “It senses the evil that lies within you, because you, Loki, are a mother not even your _newborn_ can love,” Thor stormed out. As Loki sat in stunned silence, he distantly heard the front door open and slam shut.

.

“Your baby refuses to be held by you,” Angrboda groused. Peter was out grabbing some groceries. “Perhaps… perhaps it is your glamour.”

“What?” Loki frowned. “I wear no glamour. I am a shapeshifter. I have no true skin.”

“Yes, but… you mentioned that she’s been a ‘she’ for these past two weeks, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps she feels stuck in her skin, and when she touches you she feels your seidr and feels frustration because she can’t access her own. Just… just try shifting into your Jotunn form, see if it helps.”

Loki did and it had helped. Granted, Peter had freaked out a lot when he walked in on Loki and their daughter both in Jotunn form.

Loki shifted back into his Aesir form, his daughter following the transformation, but not crying anymore.

“Well, I see you two have things sorted,” Peter smiled. He looked around and frowned. “Hey… Loki, where’s Thor?”

“Gone,” was all the reply he received.

.

“I think I’ll take you up on that drink.”

“Excellent.”


	10. Chapter 10

Jarnsaxa was, and Thor couldn’t believe that he was saying this, _beautiful_. Especially in the neon light of this pub, with this ice-cold multicoloured drink in his hands. This was, of course, despite the fact that Jarnsaxa was a good three feet taller than him.

Maybe it was because some of what Loki had said rang true with him, maybe it was because he and Jane were ‘on a break’ while she worked on a project in Switzerland, and they’d given one another the greenlight to do pretty much whatever the hell they wanted.

He found himself in Jarnsaxa’s bed that night. He tasted every corner of the man, remembered the sweet and surprising joy in taking Jarnsaxa’s cold cunt. It was incredible, he’d never felt anything like it!

He woke up beside the giant. He didn’t have frostbite, which he could only assume was because he was a quarter Jotunn, but when he woke he felt… empty.

He wanted to talk about it, of course he did, it was a consequence of spending too much time around his brother. Jarnsaxa, on the other hand, acted as though it had never happened.

Or at least he did until that night. And the night after that. And the night after that.

.

“We haven’t seen Thor in days,” Tony shrugged. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of Mary since Loki had walked into the man’s lab. “Why?”

“Because I haven’t either,” Loki rubbed his temples, agitated, “And since the only other place that he could be is Jotunheim…”

“Right… remind me again why you don’t trust those guys?”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

“Great. That’s my race.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. Sounds a bit racist, actually.”

Loki groaned. “Look, and I can not stress this enough to you- Jotnar are _not_ trustworthy. Our last war with them was because they came to earth and begun to pillage villages, which not only violated Asgard’s dominion rights over Midgard-”

“Hey, wait a seco-”

“-but would have also started a third ice age upon your planet,” Loki finished.

“OK, but let’s get back to the fact that you seem to think that you have dominion rights over Midgard.”

“We won it fair and square,” Loki shrugged. “No offence, but your defence was pretty pathetic.”

“Oh, and you were there, were you?”

“_Actually_, I was. Back when father held the time stone, he took us there once. He then passed it to your people to hide it from Thanos, who you have now obviously eradicated.”

“Obviously,” Tony nodded. “So what are you going to do about Thor then?”

“Well, obviously I have to go in after him. Will you look after Mary for me until I return?”

“Of course!” Tony said, a little too quickly. Loki blinked. Well alright then.

.

“Brooooottthhheeeeerrrrrrr!!!” Loki called out in the harsh winter snow of Jotunheim. Of course, it was Jotunheim, so it was impossible to really tell if this was winter. Norns he hoped that this was winter.

Nothing.

Heimdall had told him that he’d seen Thor somewhere by the west of Jotunheim. Loki looked around in the blizzard. He saw nothing.

_Change into your Jotun form_, a voice in his head suggested, _your birth form is better adapted to this weather_.

But Loki was a creature of pride, and like _hell_ was he going to don the skin of a monster. Again.

“Are you lost?” A voice behind him boomed.

Loki froze before turning around. _Helblindi_.

“Your M-Majesty,” Loki shivered, bending to bow, incredibly terrified. Oh well, he hoped that Peter could take care of their daughter alone. The boy might not be equipped to be the child’s parent, but Norns knew he would probably die trying to nurture Mary.

“Ah, prince Loki, what brings you to Jotunheim?”

“My brother. Nobody on Midgard has seen him in days.”

“And you blame us.”

Loki flustered. “No, of course not, I was merely worried that the temperature conditions-”

“It’s alright,” Helblindi waved off. “I understand that you don’t trust us. If you want, I can help you look for Thor.”

“You’re the king of Jotunheim, I wouldn’t want to waste your time.”

“Nonsense. You’re a prince of Asgard, _royalty_, I wouldn’t have you walk amongst the commoners,” mostly because they would kill you. They _loved_ Laufey and you murdered him along with several of our own. You should be ashamed of yourself. But you’re a strong seidrmadr, and at the end of the day you _are_ of our father’s blood, as well as a potential asset to Jotunheim once we use you to breed a few warriors whom we can use to claim the Nine. - Of course, Helblindi said none of this. “But, as a shapeshifter, wouldn’t you feel more comfortable wearing Jotun skin?”

“I’m fine, thanks, my seidr keeps me warm,” what a lie, but Loki would rather freeze to death than wear Jotun skin. That was a lie, of course, his sense of self-preservation was high, but the point remained.

“Suit yourself,” Helblindi shrugged.

It took them half a day to find Thor. They didn’t really talk much to one another. How exactly _did_ one strike up a conversation with a long lost brother, one of whom murdered your father in cold blood.

“Thor,” Loki breathed a sigh of relief when they found him.

“Brother,” Thor gave Loki a hug he immediately tried to get away from.

“Thor, where have you been! Asgard has been running Kingless for days, and I had to find out about this from _Valkyrie_, who tore a hole in my wall and drained my liquor supplies!”

“You’re breast-feeding, aren’t you supposed to be off alcohol?”

“That’s not important, _Thor_,” Loki seethed. “Why are you running around and shirking your responsibilities off!? I thought that you’d grown up past that.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Loki, you of all people know how important these negotiations are given that _you_ helped to draft them!”

“Not here then? Where would you have us go? Niffleheim? Vanaheim? _Anywhere_ but Asgardia? Huh, Thor? Is that what you want?”

Thor chuckled, clearly the only one to remember or seemingly care for the pair of Jotnar watching the exchange, their expressions masked by the thick snow. “So sorry, Your Majesty and the Lovely Jarnsaxa, but my brother and I must really be heading off. I’ll be back soon. Heimdall!”

The Rainbow Bridge ensconced them and carried them off to Midgard.

.

“You smell like sex,” Loki accused.

“Well, I did get a lot of it,” Thor rolled his eyes. Loki wasn’t allowed to make him feel bad, not after everything that Loki had done. At least Thor had slept with _one_ person and wasn’t intentionally trying to make his brother, as though Thor didn’t know _exactly_ what he was doing. Thor sighed. “Loki, what are we doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“What happened to us? We used to be so close.”

“I think you know full well what happened to us.”

“It was mutual- _you’re_ the one who told me we should end it!”

“Well of course I told you we should end it! You were in love with _Sif_!”

“I wasn’t in love with her! She was just a friend! _You_ were the one who changed!”

“What, were you disillusioned by me the moment I stopped worshiping the ground you walked on? The moment my world stopped revolving around you? We were _kids_, Thor!”

“Exactly, Loki, _we were kids_!”

Loki seethed.

“This isn’t normal, Loki… you’re my brother, I don’t like us being like this… we need therapy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to school tomorrow :( So I won't be able to update until late December. I will continue writing these stories, of course, but I won't be able to actually post them, seeing as our school monitors the wifi and updating my stories would be a violation of our internet policy.
> 
> See you in three-and-a-half/four months


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much with everybody's patience in waiting for these chapters. It was really sweet seeing that comment about school being important- but I do still write at school, I just can't post because they monitor our wifi. 😂
> 
> Anyhow, enjoy!

Finding someone to counsel them was hard given that they were royalty. No mortal therapist would understand, and Asgardians may abuse the knowledge.

When Valkyrie, Heimdall and Natasha all volunteered, though, it was hard to pick which one.

“They’d all take your side,” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Why not a counsel then? We can include one of your friends.”

“I have no friends?”

“Your fling, perhaps?”

“He’s too young, honestly, he shouldn’t even be involved in any of this,” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Isn’t it a little late for that kind of sentiment?”

Loki looked furious. “Fine then, we’ll just have all three, it’s more likely to help them overcome personal biases if they’re policing one another,” he shrugged.

.

“So start by introducing yourselves,” Natasha looked dead serious as she sat in her armchair aside the trio of judges, er, _therapists_ sitting in their own armchairs. Loki and Thor were on opposite sides of the same sofa.

“You can’t be serious,” Loki deadpanned.

“Alright, better idea,” Valkyrie smirked. “Introduce one another.”

“What?”

“Come on, now, show how well you know each other. Thor, you start.”

“Fine,” Thor sighed, guess he’d be the only one taking this seriously, he was after all the only one who _ever_ tried to fix their relationship. “Hello, I’m Loki, I’m a seidrmadr. I’m 1500 years old in three days. I’m a trickster, the god of mischief, and Odin’s second born son,” Loki scoffed at that but said nothing. “I have two children, though I am unmarried. One is my son Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse, fastest in all the Nine, his sire was the Great Stallion Svadilfari. My other child is my daughter-who-is-technically-both-but-hasn’t-changed-gender-yet, her name is Mary Frigga Parker, son of Peter Parker.” He said this tactfully to avoid any unnecessary strife between himself and his brother.

“Now Loki.”

“Hi, I’m Thor. I’m big and I’m blond and I like to use brute force to get whatever I want. One time I even stormed into a realm to steal this big fire sword to prove my worth to my father- whom I can _not_ stop trying to please, by the by. Ooh! Also, I have a mom and a dad- who I am forever trying to please- and a sister and this foster brother as well who I used to have a sexual relationship with!"

OK, that was it.

“I also like to whore myself out to anything that can walk- and I mean _anything_,” Thor emphasised. “I once even used my ‘divine powers’ to turn my brother’s dick into a snake so that he could fuck me with it-”

“That was _one-_”

“Ssssh!” Natasha scolded, far too interested in what Thor was saying. “Loki, it’s Thor’s turn. Thor, continue.”

“Thanks! Anyways, I also have _a lot_ of Daddy issues, hence me sleeping with a man double my _father_’s age, but then I slept with a teenager, so I guess that that balances it out. Maybe next I’ll sleep with a frost giant to regain my sense of frost giantness. Not that he’ll be big enough to sate the dripping whore’s hole that has become of my cunt! Oh, and I like wreaking havoc and committing genocide to soothe my screwed-up brain, and just generally creating messes that my big brother has to clean up!”

“Oh, that reminds me, I also have a huge ego: for example, the other day I decided that my cock was big enough to sate a _frost giant_, and I now can’t get the idea of frost-fucking out of my head, which is funny because given my track record in bed I may have screwed up our interplanetary relations with Jotunh-”

“Well _you_ weren’t com-”

“Thor!” Natasha scolded.

“Sorry.”

“Thank you, Natasha. Anyways, potential diplomatic relationships aside, did I mention that I _so_ have a hammer fetish? Or that I’ve _literally_ slept my way across the realms? Seriously, I probably have a hundred bastards I probably don’t even know about. Then again, the mothers probably won’t know they’re mine either, since I seem to have an _attraction to whores_.”

“Well I’m Loki and I’d know all about bastards given that I’ve birthed two,” Thor rolled his eyes.

“That’s enough, boys,” Brunhilde sighed. “OK, I think that we’re done here for the day. We’ll meet up again tomorrow. Anything that you want to say to each other?” She gestured.

“Nothing,” Loki held his head up high in a snooty gesture.

“Same here.”

Brunhilde sighed. “Then you may leave.” Once the two left, she turned to Heimdall. “Make sure the two are as far away from one another as possible, _please_?”

“Loki can shield himself from my gaze.”

“Then make sure that you can see Thor,” _duh_!

.

“Mary!” Loki cooed, holding the giggling child in his outstretched arms as he reclined on the sofa.

Mary had yet to say her first word, but she was ageing as a normal babe, just three months old. Already she could almost grip things. He sent a burst of his seidr through her and she just smiled back at him.

“You’re a big girl, growing up so fast… I’m gonna miss this one day… but just remember this, no matter where you are or what happens, _I_ am your mama.”

.

“So you met our King,” Angrboda nodded. “That’s cool. What’d he say?”

“Nothing of import, why?”

“No reason, just that I think it odd that you fought so freely in front of him given how you so seem to distrust us.”

Loki shrugged. “Thor and I fight everywhere and anywhere. It wasn’t something personal.”

“Of that I have no doubt. Your brother is rather stubborn.”

“Tell me about it,” Loki sighed, ignoring the old urge to speak up for Thor that flared within him. “What have you been doing?”

“Well, you left Mary with Stark, so I have mostly been watching that ‘TV’ thing the mortals are so obsessed by.”

“And?”

“Honestly, I don’t see the appeal. Jotunheim’s gladiatorial championship is _far_ more interesting,” Angrboda huffed.

“Gladiators? I thought your population was scarce.”

“_Starving_, not scarce. I remember Helblindi-King once offering up a loaf of bread for the winner,” Angrboda shrugged.

“Did you ever participate?”

“No. Seidr is not permitted in them.”

“On Asgard too, it is seen as ‘women’s craft’.”

“On Jotunheim it is seen as Asgardian,” Angrboda sighed.

Loki snorted at that. “Well, I suppose that you do see us as weaker and physically inferior to you.”

Angrboda hadn’t expected Loki to take such a comment in stride like that… _excellent!_

“You shouldn’t be drinking while you’re breast-feeding,” Angrboda murmured lowly.

“I’m not breast-feeding,” Loki shrugged. “Mary stopped latching on _weeks ago_.”

“She’s three months old.”

“Well we didn’t exactly have the greatest relationship to start with. And now when I hold her she just won’t take. I’ve switched to iced yak’s milk.”

“Don’t your breasts hurt?”

“Yes, but they’ll get better.”

Angrboda tutted. “You should have told me about this,” he frowned, seriously. “You know, if she prefers iced yak’s milk, it _might_ be because yours is too warm! You should wear your Jotun form more often.”

Loki scowled. “What is it with you and my Jotun form? Why are you so obsessed with it?”

“Why are _you_ obsessed with oppressing who you are?” Angrboda shot back.

“I’m not oppressing myself!” Loki argued, “I’m a _shapeshifter_, for Bor’s sake, why are you so fanatical about Jotun-ism?”

“Say what you will, but your baby prefers its mother in its mother’s _real skin_. Or have you already forgotten as much?” Loki made no reply. “Overlooking such a detail doesn’t seem like you… which means that you are doing this on purpose,” Angrboda continued, “You are _purposely_ pitting your child against you!”

“How _dare_ you! I am doing no such thing!”’’

“Yes you are! And you’re doing it because you’re so _vain_! You’re too embarrassed of your own skin and now your child is suffering for it!”

“You really think me so vain as to put _cosmetic purposes_ over the **_welfare of my child_**!?” Loki seethed.

“Maybe not intentionally, but yes that is what you are doing!”

“Has it ever occurred to you, that as a shapeshifter who has had experience giving birth in forms other than ‘my true form’,” he made air quotes with his fingers, “_I_ know more about this than you do?”

“Has it occurred to you that she stopped pushing you away from her the moment you transformed into your Jotun form?”

“Has it occurred to _you_ that she seems _just fine_ with Peter in his _very_ non-Jotun form?”

“Peter is wearing his natural skin,” Angrboda hissed.

“As am _I_.”

“Whatever,” Angrboda threw his hands up in the air. “If you want your baby to hate you, then that’s fine with me! But know this- you denying your heritage, looking down on us as though we’re monsters-”

“-you _are_ monsters!”

“-is only going to hurt the child, because like it or not that’s also a part of _her_ heritage, or do you revel in the idea of all of your children being as self-loathing as yourself?” Angrboda stormed off into his room.

Loki grunted, picking himself up and making his way to his room. He’d clean up tomorrow morning, he didn’t feel in the mood right now.

.

Loki took Mary to the park the next morning. He’d heard that sunlight was important for babies.

“One day, I’ll take you to meet your big brother,” he cooed into her precious little face. “You’ll like him, he’s such a sweet boy.”

Mary giggled. She was three months old, she’d start walking soon.

Loki’s thoughts drifted back to Angrboda’s words. Would she start to hate a part of herself too? How would that affect her? He didn’t want his daughter to hate herself. Definitely not the way he pretended he didn’t hate himself.

He changed right there, startling dozens of park-goers and causing a child to scream and start wailing. It was worth it though, when Mary began moving erratically in his arms, reaching for him, trying to come closer. He hugged her close. He was _never_ going to tell Angrboda of this. Ever.


	12. Chapter 12

“So, Loki, since it’s your birthday, why don’t you start?” Natasha suggested.

“OK.”

“Excellent. Now, last session you talked about Thor using his brute force to get what he wants. Why don’t you talk about how that affected you?”

“Not much, though it is rather annoying when every disagreement ends in a broken limb somewhere on your body,” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Alright, alright, good. Now, Loki, from what I’ve gathered, Asgard is a very… _masculine _place, in the traditional sense, for lack of a better word, yes?”

“Yes.”

“And from what I’ve heard, seidr, which is your primary form of fighting, is seen as women’s craft.”

“Only by barbarians, so yes.”

“Tell me, how do you think that impacted you growing up.”

“Not much, I preferred books and seidr to sparring,” Loki shrugged.

“Right, but there still must have been some social disconnect. Whether or not you liked books, it’s human nature to seek validation from one’s peers.”

“I’m not human.”

“Asgardian, then, or Jotun, whatever you are it is likely to be the same, it’s a common trend amongst social species.”

“Fine. Yes, I suppose that it did sometimes hurt that my gifts with seidr were never acknowledged, but I fail to see how that might have caused any significant childhood trauma.”

“Well why don’t you share one of those instances? Hmm?”

“Alright, once when Thor and I snuck off to Svaartleheim in our youth, we almost got caught by a group of Dark Elves, but I managed to convince them that we were sent by the Norns through some illusions. We managed to escape. Afterwards, as we trekked back to Asgard through one of the inter-planetary holes, Thor made a comment about how _he_ could have broken us out without ‘womens’ craft’.”

“It was only a jest!” Thor protested.

“_Thor_,” Natasha warned. “It is _Loki’s_ turn!”

“Thank you.”

“And how did that make you feel?”

“Annoyed mostly,” Loki confessed. “But I was mostly used to it by that point.”

“OK. Thor, I want you to tell Loki about a time that he used his seidr and you appreciated it.”

“Alright. Brother, I really appreciated it when you used your seidr to conjure that smoke cloud that helped us escape Musspelheim undetected.”

“Thank you, Thor,” Loki nodded.

“Now Thor, you mentioned that you were uncomfortable with Loki creating messes for you to clean up. Why don’t we talk more about that?”

“Alright. Since we were children Loki has made mess after mess and I’ve always had to clean them up.”

“Why?”

“Well, when I was young my mother and father would always insist on me looking after my brother. As we grew older, I suppose that I just became accustomed to it.”

“Wonderful. Now could you perhaps highlight a particular instance where you had to step in and clean up one of Loki’s messes for him?”

“When he grew spiteful towards a member of our father’s court, Aeron, and slept with the man’s wife, and I had to go and retrieve the battle axe _mjörmin_ to stop him from declaring holmgang on Loki.”

Natasha blinked, clearly doing her level best to not come off as judgemental about the transgression. “Alright. Loki, do you have anything that you’d like to say to Thor?”

“… You said ‘my mother and father,’” Loki murmured, softly.

“What?” Thor frowned, already not liking where this was going.

“Just now. You called them _your_ parents, not _ours_,” Loki blinked, looking miserable but increasingly angry.

“Brother, you twist my words-”

“-because _of course _they’re _your_ parents, that’s why they always favoured you!”

“If you have suffered any slight by the hands of _our_ parents it’s because _you_ provoked it!”

“Oh, _really_!? I ‘provoked’ father into leaving me in the stocks to be ridiculed for three days without reprieve?”

“You insulted the King of Vanaheim, you’re lucky that father managed to persuade him to not put your head on a spike!”

“The King of Vanaheim is _your uncle!_”

“_Our_ uncle! And you speak of biases- _he didn’t know_!”

“And yet he _somehow_ always favoured you! _You_ chopped off Lisse’s braid! All I did was suggest that Asgard didn’t need Vanaheim’s help to take down the Jotnar during the first revolution.”

“Seven thousand Vanir _died_, Loki! They were not treaty-bound to help us!”

“The point remains that we didn’t _need_ their help! The war only felled a half a thousand of our own!”

“Yes, which is why they are so upset about helping! Because your _allies_ should never suffer more casualties than you do! Norns, you know what our real problem is? It’s that you never know when to _shut up_!”

“Should we stop them?” Heimdall murmured quietly to his… associates?

“No. This is good. They’re getting it all out. These two are emotionally constipated- this is the bran we’ve been needing,” Natasha murmured back.

“I still say that we should just let them settle this with swords,” Valkyrie rolled her eyes.

.

“I see you’re taking to your Jotun form,” Angrboda commented mildly, looking at the placated infant.

“What on earth gave you that idea?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you disappear into your room with her at any given chance.”

“Perhaps I wish to be away from you.”

“Mmmm, perhaps,” he hated how smug the man sounded.

“How do you know so much about halfling babies anyways?”

“I am one.”

“What?” Loki frowned. Angrboda didn’t _look_ half- he merely appeared to be a runt in Loki’s eyes.

“Yes. See, true Jotnar are always either born full or, in more rare cases, runt. I, as you may have noticed, am not full, but I’m not quite runt either.”

“Uh huh,” Loki nodded dumbly, cradling baby Mary.

“You yourself are quite tall for a runt, likely because you are of Laufey’s line. I, on the other hand, am an anomaly- I’m just _short_. Jotnar are not ‘short’. This is my body’s way of compensating for my Light Elf mother.”

“Oh,” Loki was curious, he couldn’t help himself. “So, does she-did she live on Jotunheim?”

“No. My father had her during the war of the realms- the first one, not the one bound to be brewing. She needed a place to stay as she had gotten lost in a blizzard. She had no money, so she offered… else.”

“Ah. Did you grow up with her?”

“After the war? Loki, nobody wanted anything to do with Jotunheim and the Jotnar, let alone a halfling. Or have you already forgotten how difficult it is to be of two entirely different races.”

“My brother is half-Asgardian-half-Vanir.”

“Don’t you mean quarter-Asgardian-quarter-Jotun-half-Vanir,” at Loki’s stunned silence, Angrboda snorted. “Exactly. See what I mean? And also, you people need to stop pretending like there’s any actual differences between the Aesir and Vanir. As a Jotun yourself, you must know that that is simply not the case, especially when comparing our anatomy to theirs.”

Yes, Loki was _very_ familiar with cross-species anatomy. He himself had seen at least eighteen different sets. Sakaar was a very… welcoming(?) place.

“Anyways. Let’s talk about something less depressing. How was therapy with your brother?”

“How do you even know about that?”

“News travels- I take it that it did not go very well.”

“That is of no concern to you.”

“Ah, ever the open door, Loki.”

“Since when did you take to calling me ‘Loki’?”

“What would you rather me call you?”

“‘Your Highness,’ as I am royalty and thus _above_ you.”

“Well you’re not _my_ ‘Highness’, I believe that you revoked that title.”

“You’re here on official business.”

“Am I? Is _this_ Asgardian hospitality?” Angrboda gestured, unimpressed.

“Our planet was recently destroyed.”

“You _did_ rebuild your kingdom somewhat.”

“Yes, but _I_ don’t live there.”

“And why ever not?”

“Because…”

“Because?”

Because it’s _not_ my home. Regardless of what Thor thinks.

“I’m waiting,” Angrboda arched a brow.

“Because I don’t wish to live there. I do not see how that is any of your business.”

“Oh, defensive royal, where’ve I seen that before?” Angrboda snorted. “You know… you’re much more like your father than you care to admit.”

“Odin was a good king. He was many things, defensive was not one of them,” Loki glared.

“I wasn’t speaking of Odin.”

“Oh? Well, last I checked-”

“When will you stop pretending that you’re not of our race?” That stopped Loki.

“Well, I’m a shapeshifter, I’m not of _any_ race. And I thought that you said that the Jotnar were accepting of my status as an Aesir prince?”

“Well _I’m_ not!”

“Oh, and why should I care what your opinion is?”

“Because, as hard as it may be to believe, as a fellow not-quite-Jotun, as well as a fellow seidrmadr, I _do_ somewhat care for you. Look at what your denial is doing for your relationship with your child- look at how it’s affecting your relationship with _King Thor!”_

“That-that is _preposterous_?”

“Is it though, is it really? Because it seems to me that if you were truly in search of the ‘original sin’ of you two’s relationship, you’d start by looking there and evaluating yourself.”


	13. Chapter 13

Thor was not _expecting_ to be awoken at two o’clock in the morning by a very drunk (hey… wasn’t he _breastfeeding!?), _barely coherent Loki.

“Brother, come in,” Thor ushered Loki into his room in Stark Towers. “What ever is the matter?”

“I hate this,” Loki confessed, clinging onto Thor with all he had as his brother tried to lay him down. “I hate us- I mean, the way things are going _between_ us, that is is that I was meaning to say is… is…” and then Loki began to sob inconsolably.

“Sssh… Loki, shhh… it’s all going to be okay,” Thor wrestled Loki down before sitting next to him. “Look at us- we’re getting therapy! That’s a step! And besides, I want to fix things too! I haven’t seen Mary in a while, she’s my niece!”

“I know, I just, hic, I don’t like how far it’s gotten… I want us back, Thor, I want _you_, not fifty to three-hundred-something other men,” Loki’s hand touched Thor’s leg longingly. Thor felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck.

“Loki... Loki… I’m with somebody else.” He didn’t think him and Jane’s open-relationship counted to having sex with people whom you already had an emotional attachment to.

“I know… I know…” Loki slurred, holding his head. Of course it would probably hurt, Thor thought back to his many trysts with lady liquor, Loki must’ve drunk a lot, his brother never did anything in small amounts. “I wish… not like this…”

There was quiet for a moment. “Then why did you end things?” Thor asked. Sure, they’d both teetered out of the relationship eventually, but it had only been because Loki had so vehemently changed his mind about everything seemingly overnight. He didn’t want to be touched by Thor. His eyes were open whenever they kissed. He looked away when Thor made sweet, sweet love to him. He was even pretty sure that Loki faked an orgasm once. **(a.n. I love Thor, but let’s face it it was probably more than once.)**

“Can’t… can’t say… dunno…” ‘dunno’? Oh no. Loki was using colloquialisms. This was bad. Loki was _D.R.U.N.K. _Drunk.

“Let me set you to bed, brother… where is Mary?”

“It’s the weekend. Peter always takes her on the weekend.”

“I thought you were going to allow him to _co-parent_.”

“Yeah, but… but… not working… doesn’t love me…”

Well shu-_duh_, the pair had had a one night stand for crying out loud! But Thor would have to be there for his brother.

“There there, Loki, at least you have Mary.”

“_No_, Thor,” Loki hiccuped, suddenly getting very angry-upset. Frustrated? Was that the word for it? “She-she doesn’t love me!”

“What are you saying, brother?” Now Loki just wasn’t making any sense.

“No, she doesn’t- she doesn’t,” and then he began sobbing again. Great. All Thor had wanted, after a long day of fighting interdimensional villains was to _sleep_, for Bor’s sake!

“Of course she does, Loki, she is your daughter,” Thor said, slowly.

“No! She _hates_ me! She keeps screaming whenever she’s in my arms! She hates me!” Loki sobbed. “She can only stand to be around me when I’m in my Jotun form!”

“Then why not simply wear that?” Thor said, tiredly. If he’d had the energy, maybe he could have predicted Loki’s reaction to that.

“Because it’s _monstrous_ Thor! _Gah_! I thought that _you_ of all people would understand this! But _no_, you’re _just like _**_him_**!”

“Just like who?” Oh great. Another baby daddy.

“Like ‘boda.” Since when was Loki using a _nickname_ for that Frost Monster?

“What did Angrboda say?” Thor asked slowly. What on earth was that monster saying to his impressional baby Loki?

“That I shouldn’t be ashamed of being Jotun! But I’m _not_ Thor! I’m not Jotun, I’m not Asgardian, I’m not _Midgardian_… I’m Loki… I’m a shapeshifter, I don’t _have_ a race! If I changed into a bear would he still call me Jotun, I think not!” That was a surprisingly sound argument for someone too drunk to walk properly. “He thinks he’s _soooo_ fancy and _soooo_ smart just because he knows healing magic and sex magic-”

“_Sex magic_?” What was this deviant teaching his brother?

“Yeah, I asked him what he specialised in, and he said healing. Then I asked him if he’d heal my toe, cuzzz I stupid-stupt- _stubbed_ it,” Loki slurred. “And he said he couldn’t because it would be too intimate!”

Wtf? Thor needed to get Loki drunk more often (even though he couldn’t really take credit for this instance). Seriously, if he’d known that this was all it would take to get Loki to open up, he would’ve subscribed to Magda’s Weekly Ale _centuries_ ago!

“Is he troubling you at all, brother?”

“No, no… he’s just _really annoying_!” Loki scratched his head. “Always telling me to parade as a Frost Giant… and he’s so good with Mary… _gah_, always flaunting his body around the apartment in those hide-nothing clothes… I think I may be going into heat soon,” Loki said suddenly, out of the blue, very seriously.

“But you only recently gave birth.”

“But Boda,” Thor clenched his teeth again, unsure exactly (or unwilling to admit) why he was so angered by the mention of the man by nickname, “said Jotnar do their heats,” yup, drunk, |not long after the kid’s born… because, um, because, oh yes! We’re an elitist species that kills off the weak, so the women have to be able to keep popping out children! Apparently you could have fucked me while I was giving birth to Mary and in a year I would have been popping out your baby.”

Thor needed a drink. And also, Loki’s heat… that would cause trouble for certain, no doubt Angrboda would use this opportunity to entice Loki into his bed. Thor saw the looks Angrboda shot at his brother when Loki wasn’t looking. Thor wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with those looks himself, least of all with whatever it was the monster was fantasising.

“I’m going to be spending the next week on Jotunheim,” Thor said, mournfully. “If you would like, I could ask one of my friends to take care of you during your heat. They could tie you down if you want, or perhaps provide a male escort? Stark could probably create a machine to ease you through it.”

“Don’t want a machine,” Loki mumbled, shifting their positions so that he was now sitting in a very uncomfortable Thor’s lap. “Just want you.” And then Loki’s lips were on Thor’s.


	14. Chapter 14

Thor had had to kick Loki out. Well, that was a little harsh. He really just flew Loki home and locked every door and window in his chambers. His heartbeat had elevated. What had Loki just done?

.

Loki groaned, waking up with that godawful hammering feeling in his head. Had he gotten drunk again? Wait… wasn’t he breastfeeding?

Groaning, Loki shifted up. Something felt… off. Was he in heat? He sent a wave of seidr over himself. No. Nothing to indicate that he was in heat… maybe in a day or two though.

“Are you going out?” Angrboda frowned, looking at the staggering Loki heading for the front door.

“Yes,” Loki replied crisply. “Just for a little while to get some fresh air. Do we need anything?”

“More toilet paper and more pop tarts would be nice,” Angrboda shrugged.

Making a mental note to absolutely not buy those, Loki nodded, exiting the apartment. He walked around Central Park for twenty minutes before deciding to make the walk back. Just as he was about to leave, however, he felt something pierce his abdomen. A knife, he looked down, coated in holly.

“That was for my sister, you sick fuck!” The man(?) shouted at him from behind. He was being kicked, he’d been ganged up on. Suddenly there were cold hands on his arms (how could he still feel anything) and he belatedly realised that the kicking had stopped. He was being slung over someone’s shoulder…

Boda.

.

“Look at the bright side, at least Mary is too young to remember this,” was the first thing that Angrboda said to him as he came to.

“I feel weird- no, wait, please don’t go-”

“I told you that healing magic had a cost, Loki. That it would be intimate. I wove our souls quite tightly together to rouse you from your near-death. It will be like this for a while, your attachment to me, but the sooner that we start to fight it the sooner you will stop feeling ‘aches’ every time I am not near you.”

That didn’t mean that they had to start now. Loki blushed realising that he’d said that aloud. Angrboda actually laughed at that.

“It actually very much does. I give it seven or eight hours before you go into heat. Do not worry, I have informed your brother. I can not travel too far from you- your soul-pain as well as your heat-ache would be too much for you to handle in your current condition, but Mary and I will be in the next room. You’re hurt, so your heat probably won’t last as long as normal. Five days, maybe. Thor said he’s sending a friend over with some contraption.”

Thor. A wave of shame and guilt burned through him. He’d been drunk when he’d kissed his brother… clearly not drunk enough. Not if he himself could still remember it… not if he could remember wanting it.

Resigned, Loki closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

.

True to Boda’s words, Loki’s heat hit him by the afternoon. It seemed that Stark was late with the machine, so Loki went for the bedpost and just speared himself on that instead. _Nnngh_, that felt good.

About a half hour in, Boda came in with some refreshments. The man looked on edge. Loki would come to learn that as a consequence of Boda healing him, their souls becoming temporarily linked, Boda’s own heat had started. But none of that mattered now, not when Boda was sinking his own fingers into Loki beside the orb on the bedpost that was already inside of him.

.

Tony banged on the door. No answer. Oh well, Loki had probably found a better alternative to the machine anyways, God knew that that god had helium legs.

He sent word to Thor, unsure of whether his friend would get it or not, and went back to his apartment for a drink. Ah, Shirley Temples…

.

Thor collapsed back into his bed with a sigh of relief. That was one _long_ trip! He knew that because he’d had sex with Jarnsaxa _twice_! He picked up his phone to call Jane. Loki had said that his heat would be coming on, right? So he’d probably either be starting it or still be in it… and besides, he didn’t really want to see Loki anymo- er, for the meantime. Yeah… yeah, that was it…

“Jane, would you like to go to Rizzio’s for dinner?”

“Sounds great!”

.

Loki was hugging a pillow. That was probably the first thing that he noticed when he woke up. Well, that and that his heat was over. He rubbed a hand over his aching backside. He couldn’t bear to touch his cunt, it throbbed too much and he’d probably only make it… why was it throbbing… and why did it _feel_ full?

The past five days had been a haze, and as it suddenly all came crashing down onto Loki, he lunged to the bathroom to throw-up. He’d had sex… with _Angrboda!_

Memories of the past week washed over him. He remembered Angrboda’s touches, sometimes feral sometimes… sometimes something akin to loving. Wait… Angrboda’s cum was in him!

What if-what if he was _pregnant! _He felt rage and hurt bubble up inside of him. He knew that it was pointless to blame Angrboda- if there was one thing he knew of seidr it was that its effects could not be fought, that would have included their soul ties.

He couldn’t cast a charm yet, however. No, he would have to wait a week until… oh no…

He glanced down at blue hands.

Oh no.

.

Thor was still unwilling to see Loki. He spent day after day with Jane, making sweet sweet love to her, and when he wasn’t doing that he was saving Midgard.

He’d decided that for the time being he’d rather get his information on Loki from a second-hand source, and so had decided to consult Peter for his expertise.

“Loki’s doing fine, looks a bit agitated though. Things between him and Angrboda are tense, Loki says they’ve been avoiding each other recently, wouldn’t tell me why though.”

Hmm, that was odd. Perhaps he would pay his brother a visit after all… in a week or two, maybe.

.

“Loki, we can’t keep skirting around the issue like this.”

“What issue?”

“The elephant in the room- you know what I mean!”

“So what, so what if we slept together, it meant nothing. It was my heat, we were bonded so it triggered yours as well. It literally meant nothing,” Loki shrugged.

“I know that it didn’t not mean anything to you, Loki. I could feel it,” Angrboda murmured. “I remember every second of it, even if you don’t. Even if you _won’t_. I remember you breaking down around Wednesday in my arms and asking if you meant anything to me- not that I blame you, heats tend to be hard on the submissive partner-”

“Hey! I am _not_ submissive!”

Angrboda gave him a look. Loki looked back. The two stared at each other for two whole minutes, one defiant and the other one incredulous. Finally, Angrboda rolled his eyes. “Fine, let’s pretend the one of us who spent the week with his cunt stuffed full and is, of the two of us, the only one to have ever given birth _isn’t_ the submissive partner, and let us get back to what I was saying. I remember you breaking down and asking me if I cared about you, and do you remember what I answered?” He bridged the gap between him and the prince.

“That I had an abhorrent personality, but a body not even a blind man would ignore,” Loki’s breath hitched as Angrboda’s hands gripped onto his hips. Tight… possessive… it had been too long since he had last felt something like this… sheer lust.

“So what do you say? I know that you yourself are a… _sexual_ creature, for lack of a better word. It’s OK, all seidrlydr are. I also know that you loathe my very existence. I am willing to propose a… trade, if you will. You need me here until Mary is… what, three? I’m imagining you wouldn’t want some new man in your life drawing your attention away from her. We can fuck, no strings attached.”

“When?”

“Whenever you or I want to, provided that the other party is consenting,” Angrboda shrugged. “Don’t deny your interest,” he leaned in and growled into Loki’s ear, left hand slipping lower than Loki’s hip, gravitating… gravit-_ah_, “Our souls are still somewhat linked. It will probably be like that until the week’s end. Still, your choice.”

Thor had turned him down, what more did he have to lose? “I accept.”


	15. Chapter 15

It took two months for Thor to muster up the courage to visit his brother. Two entire months. And that was only because Loki hadn’t caused any trouble for him in those two months, and to be quite honest he was quite curious about what his brother was doing to turn him docile for such a span of time.

Perhaps motherhood had changed Loki?

No, no, not that. Thor almost spat out his breakfast milk in laughter at the thought. Nothing in the Nine would ever change his brother.

He still hadn’t told Jane. His beautiful, _beautiful_ girlfriend and soon to be fiancé, and quite honestly he didn’t think that would be a conversation that they would be having any time soon. How exactly _did_ one explain to their current SO that they used to date their intersexed younger brother? More-so, how would he explain that _Loki_ broke up with _him_?

And so it took Thor an entire two months to visit his brother.

“Jarnsaxa sent this along,” Thor held up a bag of fruit. “He says that it’s good for the baby. Also for Angrboda, who he’s worried will develop scurvy. You could try some too, you know, it’s really good!”

Loki took one look at it and turned up his nose. No. He would _not_ be indulging in Jotun nonsense. Angrboda took one look at the fruit and blushed. Yeah… Mary was _not_ going to be eating that, and Jarnsaxa was officially a grade-A twat. Angrboda didn’t need sex-fruit to step up his game, all he needed were the ears of a select few.

“How was Jotunheim?” Loki asked.

“Cold,” Thor admitted, ruefully.

“Really? Jarnsaxa didn’t keep you warm?” And there it was.

“Must you always be like this?” Thor hissed.

“Only on bright, sunny days,” Loki drawled lazily.

“Well, I shall take my leave,” Thor picked up Jarnborn and summoned the bifrost to carry him away.

“You know, most of your issues with him are man-made.”

“Shut up.”

.

They hadn’t had therapy the past _four_ months, because shortly before Thor had returned from Jotunheim and Loki’s heat had ended, Natasha had been called off by SHIELD to work a case in Moscow. Now that she was back, they could resume.

“Have you two had issues these past few weeks? Heimdall says he saw Loki kiss you, Thor.”

Both men blushed.

“My apologies, but is this _Heimdall_’s therapy session or ours?” Loki huffed, petulantly.

“Yours, which is why we’re talking about an action involving _you_. Now, Thor, let’s start with you. We already know that you and Loki used to date. How did this feel? Did it bring back memories? You’re with Jane, even though Loki initiated the kiss out of the blue, did you feel like you were betraying her?”

“I did feel bad about it, but no I didn’t feel as though I were betraying her because I hadn’t wanted it,” wow. Way to cushion that blow. “As for the kiss, I didn’t feel much by it. Obviously I knew that it was wrong, which was why I took him back to his apartment right after it happened. No, no real memories, just a bit of annoyance.”

“OK, OK, good. Loki, what about you, did you feel anything by it?”

“No.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“I was _drunk_. People do stupid things all the time when they’re drunk.”

“But your inhibitions were removed, don’t you think that that alludes to you secretly wanting to do it?” Valkyrie questioned.

“People do stupid things all the time when they are drunk. I highly doubt that that man who jumped off of the balcony at the last DNTC rave secretly wanted to fly.”

“OK,” Natasha switched her gaze between the brothers. “Is there anything either of you two wish to say to one another?”

Loki sighed. “I am sorry, brother, I never would have kissed you in my right mind.”

“Thank you, Loki. I am sorry if you yourself have experienced any discomfort from the ordeal.”

“Thank you, Thor.”

Heimdall and Valkyrie traded glances while Natasha merely face-palmed. Right. Because either brother was just _so_ believable in this exchange. Seriously, when were these two idiots going to realise that they were made for each other? (**a.n. no, really. Marvel’s Odin takes Loki to unite Asgard and Jotunheim and it _isn’t_ via marriage? Bitch please, I know how shit worked back when monarchies were a thing.)**

“Okay…” Natasha nodded, trying to maintain a serious expression. “So, Loki, do you feel like you owe Jane an apology?”

“Yes. I shall be sure to deliver one to her the next time that I see her.”

“Um…” Thor blushed. “That might not be so wise. Jane is a very open-minded mortal, but I don’t know how she will take incest.”

“You took it just fine,” Loki shrugged, “And you’re not exactly ‘open-minded’, so you have no right to criticise the mortal-”

“**_Jane_** is _not_ just some ‘mortal’, I wish her to be my w-”

“- there is, you know, of course the fact that neither the pair of us are _related_ and that therefore it isn’t actually ‘incest’, more accidental… unincest?”

“OK, and that’s wrap,” Natasha clapped her hands together. She could _not_ take another twenty minutes of this.

.

Loki was sick. He groaned, rubbing his forehead. That had been the third time that afternoon. Was this some weird stomach bug? He ought to see Eir.

“What’s wrong?” Angrboda asked.

“Nothing,” he shrugged, throwing on his coat.

“You sound ill.” Angrboda sounded accusatory.

“Just a little stomach bug,” Loki shrugged.

“Vomiting? Two months after your heat? During which we had _lots and lots and lots_ of unprotected sex? Sounds to me like you’re pregnant,” Angrboda shrugged.


	16. Chapter 16

After yet another one of those human home-pregnancy tests, Loki could confirm that yes: he was indeed pregnant.

His first instinct had been to panic, then to accuse Angrboda of planning this, then to just slowly accept his fate. Oh well, at least Mary would have a sibling. Well, one close to her age that was. hey… he hadn’t taken her to meet her brother yet, had he? That would have to be rectified.

Angrboda told him that they ought to get him checked out using the soul forge. Loki thought that that was a terrible idea. Thor didn’t need to know that he was pregnant _again_.

But as the days passed on, Angrboda’s words got to him.

“We need to know if you’ll be able to carry it. Jotun pregnancies can be pretty high-risk for the physically inept.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Loki had snapped.

“That as a runt it might _kill_ _you_. We need to know how many you are carrying. One is doable. Two, maybe. But given your dam’s history, I’d say it’s probably three.”

“My dam- what are you talking about?”

“Loki,” Angrboda said, infuriatingly slowly, as though Loki were some common fool. “Runts only exist in species where the mare carries multiple offspring. How on earth did you think that you came out? Alone? On your own? Helblindi and Byleistr _literally_ beat you to the throne by 3 hours, two minutes, and a theft respectively.”

Oh, ha ha, make fun of his plight.

And so it was with a heavy heart that Loki made his way to see Eir.

“I need your help, but you can’t tell Thor,” were the first words out of Loki’s mouth the moment that he laid eyes on the woman.

“Client-patient confidentiality,” Eir swore, drawing an imaginary sewing-needle over her lips. Loki scowled at the sincere and yet mocking gesture. Loki had worked hard to get that thrice damned hammer for Thor. Fuck the rest of the gods for making fun of that for eternity. It had done them all a hundred more times good than not. “I am sworn by oath. What is it this time, my prince?”

“I am pregnant.”

“_Again!?_”

“Yes,” he hissed.

“If I may ask, who is the father?”

“That would be me,” Angrboda piped up.

Eir’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Oh, I see. Well, right this way you two. Let’s take a look at you. Hopefully it’s just the one- oh my… my prince, it appears-”

“I can see!” Loki snapped back, trying to keep the tears off of his face.

Three. Three children in him. Three Jotun-Aesir children in him.

.

“Your brother is with Eir,” Heimdall commented.

“Oh?” Thor tried to act as though it were of no import. Of course it was. It was his _brother_!

“I am worried… he was shrouding himself from my sight.”

“Doesn’t he always do that?”

“Not when he’s on Asgard… or in Asgardia, in this case.”

“Hmmm… curious… wait, if he was shrouding himself, how do you know where he went?”

“There’s a mysterious blank spot where Eir should be. I took a guess.”

Thor nodded. “Very well, thank you, Heimdall.”

But what could Thor do about it? So what if his brother wanted medical advice? Maybe he’d stuck something where it shouldn’t have gone, wasn’t that the main reason for embarrassing medical visits? That was Loki’s business, not his.

Still, Heimdall had seen it fit to inform him of this. It couldn’t be for nothing. There must be something else. He should go and see his friend again. Why did he only think about this when the man had left? _Urgh_, **_stairs_**!

When he eventually reached Heimdall, the man was waiting for him. Wait…

“If you saw me coming, why didn’t you pause halfway up the stairs?” Thor panted.

“I saw a vision of a future where half of Asgard dies. You needed the exercise. Trust me. And with Jarnborn summoning bifrosts for you, Norns know you aren’t getting enough of it,” Heimdall muttered.

“Why did you mention Loki’s visit to me? Surely you didn’t think it unimportant?”

“During your brother’s heat, Anthony Stark went to deliver machinery to help your brother through it. Nobody answered the door, so he left. I have reason to believe that he…”

“Spent his heat with Angrboda,” it hit Thor like a ton of bricks. “But _why_? Why _Angrboda_, why not someone else?”

“It _could_ have been someone else. I saw a group of men in a park before your brother waltzed in. He could have gone back with one of them. I agree, it is unlikely to be Angrboda given how your brother detests Jotnar, though you yourself seem quite set on that scenario.”

Calm settled over Thor. Of course, of course, he was being silly, he was jumping to conclusions. It was _much_ more likely Loki had whored himself out for his heat and Angrboda had taken Mary somewhere else for the duration of it.

.

** _1002 AD, Asgard Forest_ **

_The hunting trip had been successful. They’d felled a half a herd of elk (using Loki’s magic as a diversion, of course). Thor had sent the rest of their group back, telling everyone he wished to spend a bit more time in the woods, with his brother. That was true. But instead of enjoying Asgardian nature, they were enjoying _ ** _Aesir nature_ ** _, specifically Thor enjoying his brother’s young, pale, naked skin as he made his way down to the lake._

_Things between them had never been better. The intensity of their romance had the normally burly, boisterous man ready to wax poetry and shed a tear if it meant his brother _**_might_**_ spare a glance at him. He was so helplessly in love, if Thor were capable of fear this would be what he feared most_.

_(No, that was a lie, what he feared most would be losing this.)_

.

Even though their last appointment had ended sourly, Thor still had to check on his brother. Just… you know, Mary took like eleven months to form, and it really had only been two months since his brother’s last heat so, really, he couldn’t be that pregnant. No reason to not just wait until their next pregnancy session. Er, therapy session.

Instead he threw himself into his dates with Jane. He was still waiting for the right time to propose. Maybe when all this Loki-crap was over he could settle down with his amazing wife and have children with her.

.

“Anything new happen over this week?”

“No,” Loki shrugged as Thor seethed beside him. Really? So they weren’t even going to talk about it then?

“Same. There _was_ a pregnancy scare with Jane when a condom ripped,” he watched as Loki’s eyes widened. Good, let Loki know he knew. Heimdall’s eyes narrowed at Thor like ‘what you doing bro? This ain’t the place!’ Except of course more formal because this was Heimdall they were speaking about. “We’re waiting a week to see if she’s actually pregnant, but I myself as a fertility god can’t really feel anything within her when I look for it, so I highly doubt that she is pregnant.”

“That was lucky, we don’t need any more Odinsons for a good few millennia,” Valkyrie grumbled.

“Now, where we-” Natasha began, but Loki had already gotten up, furious.

“Did Eir tell you!?” He screeched at Thor.

“No, Sif saw you exiting,” Thor shrugged, lying/telling the truth depending on which part of his statement you analysed.

Sif! Loki cursed, mentally. This was why he had cut off her hair back when they were young! Well, this _and_ sleeping with Thor, of course!

“So you _are_ pregnant again- who’s the father this time?” Thor demanded.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Natasha turned to her comrades.

“Nah, I want to see where this is going,” Brunhilde replied, deeply wishing she had some alcohol to enjoy this with. Or popcorn, popcorn would do.

“That is none of your business- see this, is what I hate about you, always inserting yourself into other people’s business!”

“I’m your older brother, I have every right!”

“Do you and are you!?”

“Oh, not this again!”

“What!? _You_ seemingly have _no problem_ bringing it up when it conveniences _you_!”

The argument lasted about ten more minutes before both boys stormed out.

“That was terrible,” Heimdall sighed.

“What are you talking about? That was more progress than we’ve ever made these last seven months,” Natasha gaped, still in shock over everything she’d heard.

.

“Thor knows,” Loki blurted over dinner.

“So?”

“_So?_” Loki gawped.

“So what if he knows?”

He could find out that my baby daddy is a Jotun this time, Loki wanted to say. And… I don’t know… I guess that I’m just sick of my baby daddy not being him… he clutched his stomach tightly, tears in his eyes. Oh shit, he must be confusing Angrboda. But when he looked up, Angrboda had turned back to his food, his bent head not quite masking the intense frown on his face.

.

“My brother is pregnant _again_,” Thor seethed.

“So?” Jane frowned.

“‘So?’?” Thor barked a laugh, “So he’s screwing over another poor soul!”

“But you’ll be there for him, won’t you? He’s your brother.”

“Of course, of course,” Thor waved a hand.

Of course he would be there for his idiot brother. He always was. It was the way of the world.

.

“How is your end?” Angrboda asked Jarnsaxa.

“Excellent. It’s either twins or a **_really_** powerful giant.”

“And the Thunderer suspects nothing?”

“Ha! That fool! At best he thinks I’ve gained some weight! I’m going up to your hut after the sixth month, I believe after that it will become obvious.”

“You have made a noble sacrifice for us both, friend,” Angrboda smiled at Jarnsaxa. This would ruin the man’s reputation- he’d be seen as ‘female’ now, _argr_ or _ergi_, as the Aesir called them. “For us all.” Only lesser Jotnar gave birth. That was the way of their people. Dominate and claim, that was how the ‘men’ were, despite that they were all biologically the same. Legend had it that prior to his first heat, Laufey-King had cut out his ovaries to make sure he was unable to ever become pregnant. Angrboda did not know the truth of that statement, but he did know that he himself had cast a spell on himself to remove his ovaries. It had been why he had taken to seidr in the first place. It was far too easy for a runt/half-thing to be unmanned.

But that didn’t matter. Not when Jotunheim was on the line. Sure, Jarnsaxa could not bring a king of the realm into it, but there was nothing stopping them from putting one or both children onto Asgard’s throne once they captured it. And his own on Vanaheim.

He and Loki had had some… freaky sex during the boy’s heat. He thinks he fucked him as wolves at some point… maybe even as a snake? No matter, if the children didn’t come out right he could always fuck his little frost bitch again. And again. And again. Oh… they would be at five months soon, Loki’s tits would be unbearable! He licked his lips. And he had just the cure for them.


	17. Chapter 17

Thor knocked on his brother’s apartment door. Loki was now four months pregnant, and needed help getting to Eir because his magic always got out of hand during his pregnancies and he had no way of masking his pregnancy.

Loki was… heavily pregnant, to say the least. Already he looked about to give birth. Thor was worried for him.

“Triplets,” Loki had explained. Thor didn’t know if his brother was quite fit to carry triplets into the world. It was worrying.

He heard patting on the other side of the door and smiled softly. Mary had begun to toddle, that must be his darling niece.

“Tho?” She called, before squealing at his response of ‘yes’. “Mo! Mo! Tho!”

Loki opened the door soon after. He’d been having trouble moving with how heavy he was with child. Thor bent down to scoop his niece up.

She, quite curiously, had wound up in the long-run with Peter’s brown, soft hair, and Loki’s daring green eyes. She had Loki’s softness about her- he could almost see in her his brother from back when they were young. Quite honestly… in ways she reminded him a bit of his own mother.

Oh, wait, of course. Ymir and Bor and Njord had all been first-cousins, so that made perfect sense.

Huh… he’d never really thought of the fact that he and Loki were third cousins… it was peculiar. Then again, they’d fucked back when they thought they were brothers, so really who gave a damn? He supposed that it was just the Vanir Spirit residing within them both.

“Tho!” Mary couldn’t really form full sentences. He had no idea, quite honestly, what the poor lamb was trying to discuss with him.

“Who’s a big girl?” He teased. “Almost one years old!”

“Tho!” She reached out and pulled a lock of his now short hair.

“Yes!” he beamed.

“_Uncle_ Thor,” Loki corrected, seemingly annoyed by the trivial detail.

“Tho!” Mary insisted.

Loki scowled the whole way to Eir.

.

While Thor held Mary’s hands above her head teasingly as they walked together, Eir was checking Loki out on the soul forge.

“This pregnancy is high risk… I genuinely believe that the best option for you is to wait until it’s safe- eight months, perhaps- and then have us perform a c-section on you.”

“No,” Loki insisted, adamant. “I will not take a c-section.” He would only be able to have nine pregnancies after that- and _all of them_ would have to be c-sectioned as well. Not to mention high-risk.

“My prince,” Eir frowned, “It is simply not safe- for you _or_ the children.”

“Then we shall conduct a caesarian _at the time it is required_, should there ever be one,” Loki remained firm. “Angrboda is more than capable of advising me on whether or not the pregnancy itself is safe or not, as a fellow Jotun.”

“_Angrboda_ may hold biases in this situation.”

Thor’s blood ran cold from where he’d overheard them. Of course. Of course it was Angrboda. He’d _known_ that it was Angrboda. Rage filled him. How dare that filthy Jotun touch his brother! Thor could call for war over this! Thor _should_ call war over this!

But he held his tongue. He pretended, once Loki was released by Eir, that he had not heard a word exchanged between the pair.

.

“I should call war for this!” Thor declared angrily to Valkyrie, Heimdall and Sif.

Sif heartily agreed. Valkyrie wasn’t too keen on a war. Heimdall just rolled his eyes and said nothing. Seriously, what was it that his old friend was hiding from him?

In the end they settled on staying vigilant, something that they could _all_ agree to. After all, while none of his friends were especially fond of Loki, none thought what Angrboda was doing could lead to anywhere good for Asgard.

.

Angrboda smiled contentedly. He’d just finished fucking Loki, and was now chatting happily with Byleistr while the boy took a nap.

“Three,” Byleistr sounded mildly impressed. “When are they due?”

“Eight more months, your Highness.”

“Excellent, excellent. And neither of them suspects anything?”

“Of course not. I have no idea how Asgard’s reign has lasted so long when Odin’s charge are idiots like them.”

.

“Your nipples are sore,” Angrboda smirked as he caught Loki, flush, easing his chest muscles. Since they’d begun sleeping together, knocking had become a lot less frequent.

“I’m managing,” Loki hissed.

“You know, there is another more _efficient_ way to deal with that,” Angrboda smirked.

“Oh? And why did you not show me this my last pregnancy?”

“I was fairly certain that you would be against me milking at your teats,” Angrboda winked, exiting the bathroom laughing, leaving behind a now sexually frustrated Jotun prince. Within seconds he was being pinned to the ground and they were at it again.

.

“Your brother’s been spending a lot of time at home lately,” Heimdall commented. “More than usual.”

“And?” Thor towelled himself off. The two often sparred together. Heimdall had, after all, been Thor’s swordmaster. It happened more frequently now that Hogun, Volstagg and and Fandral were dead.

“So has Angrboda.”

Thor rolled his eyes. “Well, he’s the baby’s father, so I’m hardly surprised.”

“You can’t tell me that you find none of this unsettling.”

“Oh? And why not?”

Heimdall zipped his mouth after that. Not yet. Not yet.

.

Therapy had been postponed until _after_ the birth of Loki’s children. A) because it was too emotionally gruelling for a pregnant person, Natasha had declared, and B) because it was just frankly quite hard to transport him there.

Tony had raised his brows at finding out that Loki was pregnant, before quickly panicking and asking if Peter was the father. Thor assured him that that was not the case. Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

“Do you know who the father is, then?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“I am afraid that I am unable to say.”

“Why?”

“I am not supposed to know who he is, I found out quite by accident.”

“So why haven’t you confronted him yet?”

That was a good question. Why hadn’t he?

.

“Loki,” Thor practiced into a mirror. “Loki, I know that Angrboda is the father of your children.”

Nothing. He imagined a reply from his brother, probably a retort something along the lines of “And? What? Are you wishing that it were you? Well get in line, brother-” no, but wait, Loki did not view his actions as slutty and unbefitting of a prince, his little brother was fairly sheltered in his world views. Poor Loki, so naive, and look at how his only son had suffered for it. It was too soon to tell with Mary, but he was fairly certain that her life, in the long run, would be affected by this as well.

Well, maybe he didn’t _have_ to think up direct quotes for Loki. What if he just envisioned the lines along which his brother would say something. Hmmm… definitely something callous and promiscuous, but also defensive. Loki didn’t like to admit it, but he was a rather sensitive creature.

“I am worried that the Jotnar are trying to manipulate us into something.”

Something along the lines of ‘duh, that’s what I’ve been saying all along,’ and ‘you're just jealous’. Of that Thor was sure. Odin’s Beard, why couldn’t Loki just leave their past in the past, of _course_ Thor held no more residual feelings for his brother. He was his _brother_, what they’d had had been a _mistake_, nothing more.

He punched a wall.

He groaned. Even talking to pretend-Loki was riling him up too much.

.

Six months. He was six months pregnant when Angrboda announced that he would be going for a short visit to Jotunheim.

“Thor will be there too. You should come, really. The cold air will be good for the baby.”

“No thank you.”

“Let me guess, you’re still not Jotun.”

“For the millionth time- I’m _nothing_! And I must stay here to take care of Mary.”

“Peter will watch her.” Angrboda didn’t have to use a conditional tense. They both knew Peter would drop whatever he was doing in a heartbeat to take care of that child. He’d been devastated when Loki had demanded Peter to finish his tertiary education.

“I can’t move much, remember? It’s hard,” Loki wobbled.

“We’ll travel on sleds and the snow would stabilise you anyways- it’s _much_ easier to walk in in your state than Midgard is.” Angrboda slid an arm around his waist intimately, and Loki wanted to smack him. What they were doing was _casual_, not intimate. More importantly, Loki wanted to smack himself for his urge to lean into the touch and rub himself all over Angrboda, and go with him to Jotunheim to prove to everybody that the man in question was Loki’s property. Huh… must be some weird Jotun thing.

“I think I’ll pass,” Loki said in a desperate bid to maintain his self-control.

“But what if you need something? What if there’s an emergency?”

“I have seidr.”

“Your seidr is dysfunctional at the moment. Neither Thor nor I would be able to make it back in time from Jotunheimr if something urgent happens.”

“Boda, I’ll be fine,” Loki rolled his eyes.

Angrboda sighed, defeated. “Fine.”

Loki walked him to the door, Angrboda’s bags in a pocket somewhere in space (Loki had taught him that one), when Angrboda shoved his hand’s down the front of Loki’s pants and grabbed him by the pussy. Loki gasped, staggering back, and Angrboda burst out laughing. “Just needed one for the road.”

Loki rightly slammed the door shut.

“Don’t let anybody else suck on your tits!” Was the reply he got from behind the door.


	18. Chapter 18

“How fares Loki?” Helblindi asked once he was alone with _his_ princes. Thor was being entertained by Thrym’s court today. Jarnsaxa had decided to go off into Jarnvidr.

“Pregnant,” Angrboda shrugged.

“And he suspects nothing?” Byleistr pressed.

“He did at some point, but he then chalked it up to pregnancy hormones after we debated around the topic.”

“Excellent.”

In six to seven months time, Loki would bring into being three healthy sons. They would, undoubtedly, go on to conquer the Nine Realms. Suck on that Odinsons. He knew they would, after all, he fully intended to snatch them from their mother’s grasp as soon as they had weaned.

.

Thor was not having a good time. How could he? His brother was on earth, alone, all pregnant and helpless, it bothered him to no end.

All around him were a bunch of sick drunks. Oh, and prince Kari of course. Seriously, Kari was Thor’s age, older technically, how had he not been coronated yet?

What if Loki needed him? He’d have no way of contacting him? He shouldn’t be here, he should go.

He got up to leave.

“Where are you going?” Slurred one Jotun.

“Probably to his pregnant bride,” giggled another, clearly drunk Jotun.

Thor was unmarried, but you never tried to talk sense to drunk people, it was just a principle.

“Yea_ah_, gonna fuck ‘saxa’s brains out,” another whooped.

That was… that was odd.

.

“Brother, we must discuss certain matters,” Thor glanced warily at his little niece, just a week shy of one. “Ummm.”

“It’s OK, it’s around her bedtime anyways. Right, precious?”

“Tho!” Mary made hand gestures, motioning for Thor to pick her up. “Th… Tho…”

“_Uncle _is going to put you to bed, right _Uncle_ Thor?”

“Of course,” Thor scooped his favourite person in the Nine into his arms and proceeded to take her to her room and tuck her in. Damn she was cute. He smiled. He’d never had a child himself, of course (despite being a fertility god, it had just never happened), but to him Mary was like a daughter. It was a shame… he felt a pang in his heart and a scowl cross his face. No. It would not do to dwell on that. He was with _Jane_, why in the Nine did he even for a moment wish that he was the one to have sired Mary? That was _preposterous_! He was Thor. This was Mary. Mary was _Loki’s_ daughter. Loki was _Thor’s _**_brother_**, and **_brother’s did _****_not_** have intimate relations with one another, let alone _children_!

When Thor came back, his first words to Loki were: “You know, she doesn’t _have_ to call me uncle.”

“They’re called _manners_, Thor, have you ever heard of them?”

Thor zipped his mouth. It would not do well to get into an argument. Not when he had important news to tell Loki.

“Loki, brother, I think that the Jotnar might be conspiring against us.”

“What? Now? After you defended them?” Loki seemed a mix of suspicious and sceptical.

“I was housed at Thrym’s this previous night. Jarnsaxa was unavailable. I didn’t think anything of it at first… but then a drunk Jotun made a comment to me about ‘going home to [my] pregnant bride’ which at first I thought was weird, because of course I’m not married… and then they started talking about how I’d impregnated Jarnsaxa.”

“And what if you had?”

“Then don’t you think it’s odd that nobody told me? That they’re seemingly trying to cover it up?”

‘You’re the king of Asgard, they might fear your demand for an abortion,’ Loki wanted to argue. But instead his blood had run cold. His instincts had told him from the start not to trust the Jotnar. And then what had happened? Jarnsaxa had seduced his brother, and Angrboda… no. Angrboda had saved his life, _surely_…

unless…

“Thor. Brother, are you aware of what transpired a half year ago? The day after… after I visited you?”

Thor’s frown was answer enough.

“I was attacked in the park.” Thor’s eyes widened. “I take it you were not informed?”

“Of course not!” Thor’s eyes widened further and his face grew murderous. “Did Angrboda _plan_ that?” Of course, Thor was getting quite sharp these days.

“Whatever these Jotnar are doing, we can not trust them,” Loki frowned.

“Come back. Move in with me. Neither you nor Mary are safe here,” Thor declared, suddenly.

Instead of arguing, Loki just nodded numbly. “Can you fetch Mary?”


	19. Chapter 19

“He’s not here. Neither is the brat,” Angrboda swore into his mirror.

“That’s peculiar. Mayhaps they went out on a walk?” Jarnsaxa shrugged. Angrboda _was_ known to overreact.

“No. He didn’t answer my cellphone. And I can’t find him using seidr- he’s hiding himself from me.”

“That is odd… you don’t think he knows, do you?”

“No, of course not, how on earth could he know?” Angrboda scoffed. “He’s smarter than his bonehead As brother, that’s for sure, but he isn’t _that_ smart.”

Except, children, as we know all too well, Loki is most definitely that smart. And he was currently staying in Thor’s room in the Avengers Tower with his brother and daughter who, much to his chagrin, wouldn’t stop calling Thor ‘Tho!’ And making grabby hands for him.

“Why are you so upset by it?” Thor had asked.

“You’re her _uncle_, **_I_** call you Thor!”

“She’s a baby!” Thor admonished playfully, pinching his niece’s cheeks.

“Tho! Tho! Tho!” She screamed gleefully. Thor honestly pitied poor Peter who had gone to MIT to study engineering. It had, regrettably, been too late for him to put Columbia on his Common App by the time that he’d found out about Mary. The poor boy had been devastated. She tried to grab his face with her tiny little hands. He leaned into it to make it easier for her. She shouted even louder, more chants of ‘Tho!’. His little baby! **_Niece_**!

“It is never too early to start learning _respect_ and **_etiquette_**!”

“Bah! You sound like father! You know, mother once told me that when you were little you used to call father ‘Ofin’ and play with his beard!”

“I did no such thing!”

“Did too!”

And after a long night of brotherly bickering, as they settled to sleep, only then would Thor’s lips curl into an elated smile as he realised…

That for the first time in a long time…

Loki hadn’t objected to Odin being their father.


	20. Chapter 20

Loki was eight months pregnant by the time that Angrboda managed to track him down. Just four-five months from the delivery date.

Loki was surprised to say the least. Angrboda had never been up to Thor’s rooms, had rarely ever even been in Stark Tower, for that matter, and Loki had used strong potions to shield him from any seidr tricks that Angrboda might try.

“Loki. Why did you leave?” The man growled.

“We know.” That was all that Loki said. That was all that he needed to say.

“How?” Angrboda didn’t even try to deny it.

“Well _I’ve_ always had my suspicions, but Thor really sealed the nail in the coffin when he mentioned a drunk Jotun at Thrym’s brought up Jarnsaxa’s pregnancy.”

Angrboda cursed. “It is against Jotun law to steal a child from their mother.”

“You were going to do that to me.”

“No. I never would have done something like that,” Angrboda lied easily.

“I am the god of lies. I know when I’m being lied to,” Loki hissed.

Angrboda grabbed Loki’s wrist so tight it almost broke. It did, however, still put an enormous amount of pressure on his nerves, causing him to scream, but Angrboda slammed his hand over the man’s mouth.

“I’m here to take you back to Jotunheim,” Angrboda shot something through him. He felt hot all over all of a sudden. He looked down and nearly screamed. The Jotun was forcing him to change.

“No-!”

Angrboda slammed his fist into the side of Loki’s face. Loki couldn’t fight him with seidr, not in his current condition. And he hadn’t been carrying knives on him, not with how pregnant he was. He crumbled to the floor, desperate to not fall in a way that would harm his children.

“Obedience will come… in time.Don’t worry, soon you’ll learn to be the perfect little frost bitch you were born to be.”

.

Thor knew something was wrong the moment he saw Mary downstairs. _Alone_.

“Tho!” She didn’t sound happy, for a change. There were tears streaming down her eyes. “Ma?”

“Mary, where’s Loki?” Thor asked her, urgently.

Mary stood still for a moment, contemplating what to do. Then she closed her eyes and suddenly she was blue.

Thor’s heart froze over.

Oh no.


	21. Chapter 21

Loki woke up strapped down by his ankles and wrists to a bed. Naked.

“I hope you don’t mind,” a voice crooned from beside him. An all-too-familiar voice that, while it once sent waves of lust coursing through his veins, now just made his skin crawl. “I took the liberty of stripping you because I thought it might be a hard feat to perform later with you tied down, and we _do_ need to be able to inspect you, since this is, after all, a rather high-risk pregnancy.”

He felt like a fool. He never should have trusted Angrboda. And what was worse was that the man had just confirmed his fears about Eir’s diagnosis- that he would, indeed, need much medical intervention (which he had not been getting) if he hoped to survive this.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Angrboda slapped him across the face. “No words out of you. Now, I don’t _believe_ in rape- even though our bylaws practically mandate it- still, I _did_ promise to make you my perfect little frost bitch, didn’t I? And these ropes here,” he tugged at the one holding Loki’s left wrist, “will keep you in your Jotun form for me, so nice and pretty.” He stroked his hand up Loki’s cheek. Loki cringed away from the touch. “I will never understand why such a beauty as yourself would wear that hideous As skin… it hides your lines, so noble and bold… and your eyes… crimson like the blood moon… breathtaking.”

And those were the words that Angrboda left Loki with. Angry, confused, and desperate for his brother to find him.

.

“Heimdall! Surely you must know where Loki is!” With Loki’s pregnancy as far as it was, he wouldn’t be able to cast his illusions to fool Heimdall. He was dismayed when his friend shook his head.

“Regretfully not. I know only that he is not where he should be, and that I am assuming that Angrboda has taken him?”

“Yes!”

“This is an act of war,” Heimdall murmured. “Take your matter to Helblindi. Let him know that we are not prepared to let an act like this go unpunished.”

“Aye. I will threaten war if I am not given Angrboda’s head by the new moon!”

.

Jarnsaxa was here too, Loki learned. The man was heavily pregnant.

“A week to go,” he said, noticing Loki’s stares. “Just the one, sadly. Rather disappointing from a fertility god.”

Loki grit his teeth. ‘He didn’t _want_ to get you pregnant, Jotun whore,’ he wanted to say. But the last time he’d tried to say something, Angrboda had, once again, back-handed him.

For a ‘not-rapist’, Angrboda was pretty handsy with him. He got milked daily. He didn’t want to admit his begrudging gratitude for that. But the man didn’t have to sit on his naked chest with just his loincloth (which, by the way, Jotnar wore nothing underneath). He also didn’t have to suck it up. Just like how Loki didn’t have to wish that it was Thor doing this to him, for him.

Angrboda _also_ didn’t have to stick fingers in him to ‘check that everything was alright down there’, that he ‘wasn’t going dry on the inside’, ‘wasn’t clogging up’, and most stupidly that ‘the babies were ok.’ Jotunheim had soul forges too!

“But _I_ don’t,” Angrboda had shrugged. “This is my _private_ residence.”

“I thought you said that my brothers had knowledge of this?”

“They do. They don’t care where you’re kept, as long as you whelp some pups,” he stroked Loki’s belly in an odd, possessive manner. “After that you’re all mine once more.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“To end Asgard’s reign of terror across the realms, and issue in a new era, one in which Jotunheim shall triumph over all.”

“How in the Nine do you ever hope of accomplishing that?” Loki spat.

“Hmmm… you truly are lucky that you’re so beautiful, your intellect isn’t much of a treat is it? Odin’s power, the power of the Allfather, runs strongly through your brother’s veins… in a week’s time it shall too run in the veins of the child Jarnsaxa will be bringing into this world. As for you, you are a stupidly powerful seidrmadr whose talent has been laid to waste by those _Aesir,” _Angrboda’s nose wrinkled and Loki wanted to punch the man for his insinuation. His mother had been the greatest seidrkona in all the realms, she made Angrboda’s seidr look like his when he was three years old, a mere infant in his mother’s arms. “In addition to that, you also have the blood of the House of Laufey in your veins, mmm, yes, our children will be very powerful indeed.”

“Your plan will fail. No child of Thor’s would ever follow you into such madness,” that he knew for a fact. His brother was good, there was no way in the Nine that he could sire a murderous child. Not with their mother’s blood flowing through him _and_ that child.

“Aye, but a child of Jarnsaxa’s will,” Angrboda rubbed Loki’s feet. Loki didn’t have to protest on behalf of his children. They both knew that it would be a lie to consider anything of Loki’s unequivocally good.

.

“We have no clue of where Angrboda is,” Byleistr frowned. (Well, Loki had to have gotten his acting chops from somewhere). “Why?”

“He has kidnapped my brother! As _your_ Ambassador, this is an act of war!”

Byleistr frowned. “I am sorry, King Thor, but I find it hard to believe that Angrboda would do such a thing- especially given that Prince Loki is pregnant with his children. Is there a reason you believe this?”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Thor fumed.

“I am unwilling to presume a man’s guilt without evidence or a reasonable cause,” Byleistr shrugged,seemingly baffled.

“We know about Jarnsaxa!”

“What about Jarnsaxa?” Angrboda had long briefed him on the situation, he knew that they knew and knew to act as though he didn’t.

“I know that sh- that _he_ is pregnant!”

“And?”

“And!? I know that it is with my child!”

Byleistr had a puzzled look on his face. “Are you sure, my King? Because we usually don’t know paternity until _after_ the child is born. It is fairly hard to tell, given how polygamous our people are.”

Internally, Thor fumed. He knew the man was lying to him. He’d grown up with _Loki,_ what did this imbecile think that he had on his brother, the _literal_ god of lies? But in addition to teaching him to spot a liar, one thing that he’d learnt from example by Loki was how to be tactful.

“Alright then. Once the child is born I am sure that you will not mind having him tested?”

“What do you mean?”

“A paternity test. Those are standard on Midgard,” Thor smirked wickedly. “And I trust that, given how this is a matter of Asgard’s security, you will not be abject to an As monitoring this pregnancy.”

Byleistr looked taken aback. Good, see him try to crawl his way out of this. “Of course, though I must confess that I am unaware of where Jarnsaxa is at this present moment. If you can find him though, he’s all yours.”

“Excellent.”

.

Valkyrie had readily agreed. It had been accepted within their council that wherever Jarnsaxa was being hidden was likely where they’d find Loki.

Sif had volunteered to help her. Hmmm… those two were spending an awful lot of time together, weren’t they… curious.

Heimdall was to be their guide.

And that was how Thor found himself parenting little Mary all alone. The poor baby lamb just wanted to know where her mama was. He pinched her little cheek to distract her. When that stopped working he made it rain. A lot. She seemed to like that. What an odd little girl.

.

“They know! And this is all his fault!” Loki could hear Jarnsaxa arguing with Angrboda.

“Don’t you touch him!” He heard Angrboda’s growl and rolled his eyes. _Dude, you can’t kidnap me from my loving brother and daughter and then _**_suddenly_**_ care about my wellbeing_.

“I’m no fool, of course I won’t! But we need to move!”

“You overestimate the Thunderer,” no, you don’t estimate him enough. “Do you really think that that buffoon will be able to find his foster brother, _or you, _behind all of my enchantments?” Yes. Loki may have been taught by Frigga, but her blood flowed through Thor.

“Fine, but just know that while I am protected from Thor’s wrath by virtue of the child I carry in my womb, _you_ are, to him, the monster that impregnated his brother and then stole him away. It is _your_ head he would mount on a stick.”

“Relax. Everything will be fine.”

.

Thor was going to kill Angrboda when he found the thrice damned rapist!

He was finally able to go in to look for his brother, two months in. Peter had returned from MIT for his break, and had offered to look after Mary. Well, offered was an understatement, he’d really just flat-out begged for his daughter- apparently three months away was a little too much- and that gave Thor the freedom to go rescue his Loki.

He moved stealthily. It was hard, of course, not just raining down lightning on these brother-snatchers and demanding that they relinquish his baby brother.

He wasn’t going to try and catch up with Valkyrie and Sif. Rather he’d asked Heimdall to send him in the opposite direction, to the places that hadn’t been searched yet. He moved like a wolf on the prowl. His son would have been born by now, of that he had no doubt. Loki’s children, on the other hand, would be about ten months pregnant, entering the critical stages. He had to be fast or Angrboda might steal the children from him. Or worse, rape him and impregnate him again.

.

In hindsight, Loki thought, nearing the eleven month mark, they should probably have factored in that he was a runt and that his children would probably take less time to be delivered. It was only after ten hours of agonising labour that he managed to birth the first child. Angrboda took the babe away before he could touch the little, furry thing, and named him Fenrir, “fen-dweller”, ah, how nice. How _lovely_!

Five more hours and out slithered the second, similarly stolen from his bosom. Jormungandr. “Great beast.” Really though, thank you Angrboda.

And finally, _finally_, out came the third. He heard Angrboda’s scowl before he saw it. “What in the Nine!?”

And that, of course, was the only one that he was allowed to keep. A little girl, his heart warmed. “Hel,” he named her for the sister he never knew, the one locked back in her own dimension for the rest of eternity. Angrboda didn’t look pleased. He was talking with Jarnsaxa, who was cradling his own baby boy, Magni- great, oh wow, didn’t even try to hide your intentions there.

“… kill her… competition for food… unnecessary…” he heard Angrboda and his heart flared with panic.

No. Surely not. He must have misheard. Not even Angrboda would kill his own kin. He struggled in his bonds immediately. Of course. Of _course_ Angrboda would kill his own kin! This was Angrboda he was talking about! He couldn’t get out. “Thor…” he whimpered desperately, tears in his eyes, daughter sitting on his chest, “I could really use you right now.”

He heard a crash followed by a startled cry. His nose twitched at the smell of Ozone in the air. _Thor_.

His assumption had been that his brother’s name didn’t work on Jotunheim- given how many times he’d tried it-, Thor was, after all, not considered a god here, but apparently he was mistaken.

Angrboda’s head was the first that he saw. Blood spattering the cold, wooden floors of Angrboda’s hut, courtesy of Jarnborn.

“Go! Run! And let me never see you again!” He heard Thor shout at Jarnsaxa. Of course, his brother was too noble to kill a mother. He felt a pang in his heart. Thor had just lost his son, hadn’t he? Of course only his brother would make a sacrifice like that to not separate a mother and an infant. Wasn’t that same nobility why Loki had fallen so hard for him in the first place?

“Brother,” Thor whispered, untying Loki from the bed. He didn’t blink once at the sight of Loki’s naked body, given how many times he’d seen it in their youth. “Are you hurt? Did you- did you just give birth?”

“Yes,” Loki gasped in pain. Everything at that present moment hurt, and he honestly felt a little dazed, despite the adrenaline pumping through his veins. “Thor… the wolf and the serpent are my sons- please, where are they?”

“On the floor,” Thor looked embarrassed. “I will go get them now.” Which was exactly what he did, and with that Loki had his new three children all in one peaceful place.


	22. Chapter 22

Aaaand now that that calamity was over, it was time to return to their favourite old one. Therapy!

“So Loki, are there any residual effects from your time as Angrboda’s captive?”

“No, not really. I suppose seeing his bloodied head on the floor was rather reassuring. However I am now more worried about seidrmadrs and seidrkonas with more power than me infiltrating my residence and kidnapping me,” he shrugged.

“Alright,” Natasha nodded. “And you’ve got three more kids, how’s that?”

“Loud.”

“Ah. And Thor, what about you? You just let Jarnsaxa go, aren’t you worried about Magni?”

“Yes. I am. _Very_. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is unlawful to forcibly remove a child from their mother,” Thor looked dead on the inside. Loki had noticed this more and more as the days went by. He couldn’t blame Thor, this was his _first child_. Belatedly, Loki had to wonder if this was how he looked after bringing Sleipnir home.

“And how do you two feel about all of this, now that it’s all over?” She looked between the pair.

“Relieved,” Loki shrugged, before turning to Thor. “Thank you, brother, for saving me. I do realise that this came at great personal loss to yourself.”

“I would always save you, Loki. You’re my _brother_.”

Natasha smiled. Sure what the two were saying was only half-true, but those were the first genuinely nice words that she’d heard the pair exchange.

.

“When would you say the big turning point was in your relationship?” Valkyrie asked this time.

“Our relationship,” Loki snorted.

Instead of roll his eyes, Thor just nodded. Yeah. He had to admit that that was true.

“Why did you start dating?”

“It started off purely physical. A drunken one night stand that evolved into many more drunken one night stands. Eventually we took a hunting trip out. No one else was with us so we wound up languishing more and more in our tent. That was when we decided to make it official- between us, that was, we obviously weren’t public about it.”

Valkyrie looked over to Thor. “You’re being awfully quiet.”

“It wasn’t purely physical for me,” he said, quietly. “I cared, _a lot_, always.”

Loki stilled. “You never told me that.”

“I didn’t think that I had to. We had slept together, yes, but you were still my brother, Loki, the one person who’d always been there with me… or rather the other way round since I’m older, I suppose,” Thor shrugged. “I didn’t think that I _had_ to say anything.”

Loki looked uncomfortable.

“Well, what changed then? What was the reason that it ended.” Valkyrie prompted. Of course things only ever got done on her day. She was _Valkyrie_

“Loki grew distant.” Loki for his part didn’t say anything. He just sat there, in a stunned silence, paler than normal, as though he had seen a ghost.

“Loki, why did you grow distant?” It seemed that the direct question had snapped Loki out of his stupor.

“I did no such thing, _his_ eye swayed.”

“That is so unfair! You had been cold to me for _months_!”

“Because you were mooning over Sif!”

“No, that happened after! Surely even you remember that! So tell me, Loki, what is it that you’re so anxious to hide!?”

“I am hiding _nothing!” _Loki hisserd.

“We’re not going to get anywhere this way, boys… I say we settle this with knives,” Natasha’s eyes widened. Oh _hell_ no!

“Okay, that’s enough! Loki, it’s okay if you don’t wish to be forthright, that is going to take some serious trust-building. Thor, you can’t force someone to tell you things that they don’t want to tell you. Let’s call it for today.”

.

_Asgard, 1022 AD_

_Over. It was officially over._

_Honestly though? Thor couldn’t really say that he was devastated over it. How could he? He’d honestly thought that it was over two years ago._

_“Go, be with Sif,” Loki had said, bitterly._

_Thor didn’t have it in him to fight Loki that._

_And as he lay bare, besides Sif with her soft, ample breasts pressed to his chest, and her loving, sweet smile, lost deep in slumber, did he realise what he had been missing out on for so long. Why should he miss Loki on a night like this?_

_And yet miss Loki he did. It didn’t feel the same. His chest pained. Maybe they should not have ended things the way they did. Maybe it was just because Loki was Thor’s first love. Maybe Thor just wasn’t over Loki yet, given that the relationship had only been officially dead for two weeks. Either way this felt… _ ** _different_ ** _, and not necessarily in a good way. Thor glanced over at Sif. He wouldn’t dare leave her in the middle of the night, he was no fool, and yet he fount it odd that the temptation struck him nonetheless._

.

Mary was a good big sister to her baby siblings. She had affectionately nicknamed Fenrir “Woof”, Jormungandr “aHaha” and Hela “Ma? _Maa!”_ Or at least he assumed those were nicknames given how often the words fell from her mouth as she toddled all over the place. Peter was back from college, he’d found out upon reaching Midgard. The boy (technically now a man as he had recently turned 18) had been very good at looking after Mary whenever Loki had to deal with the triplets.

Fenrir was growing bigger day and day. Jormungandr too. It pained Loki to realise that he may not be able to keep the pair around much longer. That was _wrong._ You couldn’t separate children from their parents- and given that one was already dead…

Loki tried not to dwell on those thoughts.

Mary would be starting kindergarten soon. While Loki had been pregnant, Pepper had taken the liberty of enrolling Mary in a nearby one.

“Oh it’s great, she’ll meet children her age and make friends!” Pepper was, at this time, heavily pregnant herself. She and Stark were expecting a little girl come July (A month away).

Loki wasn’t sure that he was ready to let go of his little girl so soon. Oh wait, no, that was a lie, he’d had to involuntarily part with her multiple times, she’d be _fine_!

Still, as he braided the little girl who had grown so emotionally attached to him (and vice versa) since all of Angrboda’s bullcrap <funny but true, she now seemed **_much_** more accepting of his Aesir form, **_hmmmm…_**>, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss. He’d lost out on so much of her childhood already by virtue of the presence of that infuriating man who was thankfully now dead. Honestly, at times he’d questioned his father and people’s animosity towards the Jotnar, now he got it.

Hel was, of course, his least independent child. She developed, as fate would have it, like a normal As baby (which was odd because he was pretty certain he’d been Jotun when he’d conceived- speaking of which, how in the Nine had he transformed out of that hideous state?).

Mary loved all three of her siblings, but Loki was starting to realise that she was probably closer to Hel. Even though it pained him personally, he could understand why she might feel a connection with something closer in form to herself.

.

It had been bothering Loki, he couldn’t deny it. Which was why when Mary came to him one morning to ask what had happened and why he wasn’t a girl anymore, Loki’s heart leaped with joy. Mary was, as he’d predicted, a shapeshifter like himself.

As the days went by without Angrboda, Loki was starting to feel more and more confident in his parenting of the child.

She was a natural with seidr- though she could still do those weird things with webs from her fingers that he couldn’t.

Thor had nicknamed her the ‘Goddess of Spiders’ in jest, but Loki was seriously starting to think that it might be true. She was enraptured by the thrice-damned bugs! Peter had, personally, found the whole thing to be quite entertaining. Loki, on the other hand, didn’t want his baby girl on the filthy ground playing with filthy insects.

.

“OK, Loki, why don’t you tell us your account of the trip to Vanaheim, since Thor said that that was when it all started changing?” Valkyrie asked.

“There was a feast, we got wasted, the end.”

“I’m sensing that that’s not the entire truth here,” she frowned. “Thor said that you would barely touch him on the trip and insisted on spending as much time away from him as possible. What happened?”

“He probably went to go terrorise the countryside,” Thor rolled his eyes, taking advantage of the fact that they were in what Natasha called ‘open-time’, where you didn’t have to be asked a question to answer, and anyone could say anything that they wanted without getting policed. Loki personally thought that the whole system was rubbish.

“Maybe I just didn’t want to spend too long lowering my IQ with you and your Neanderthal friends.”

The familiar jibe wouldn’t have hurt or angered Thor the way it did had his friends still been alive.

“Oh please, we both know _exactly_ what you were doing, you snake!” Thor rolled his eyes.

Loki went dead silent, “And what exactly would you think I was doing, Thor?”

“What you always do, whore yourself out.”

Natasha looked like she wanted to stop the session, but Valkyrie held her arm, drawing her attention, and shook her head. No. This was one of those ‘we need to let it all out’ moments, they could come back and reconcile later. And really, wasn’t that the whole point of this ‘therapy’? That Thor and Loki weren’t being communicative enough? That they couldn’t be trusted to air their feelings to one another and therefore needed to be supervised to do it?

“Oh, _I’m_ the whore, last I check it was your eye wandering!”

“_After_ this, Loki!”

“Oh, really, you think I _just_ mean Sif? No, Thor, I’m talking about the countless barmaids whose bosoms you eyed! The comments that you made _in front of me_ about them!”

“We were out _with friends_, Loki, what did you expect!?”

“Compassion? Basic human dignity?”

“Oh get over it! It was a thousand years ago, and I _never cheated_! I was with you and only you the whole time! Through the mood swings, the violence, the bitterness, the loathing, the _hate_! You want ‘inappropriate’? How about that time we got into an argument and you threw a vase at me!?”

“I apologised-”

“That didn’t make it _right_! Or change the fact that the left side of my face was in stitches for _three weeks_, Loki!”

“You were the one who started that argument!”

“I touched your shoulder!”

“And _I_ told you to go away! Maybe you should learn something about personal space _and_ consent!”

“You had been avoiding me all week, what was I _supposed_ to do!?”

“Oh, I don’t know, given me time and space!? Been _considerate_!?”

“I gave you **_a week_**! And been considerate about what!? It’s not like you told me something was wrong! You didn’t _tell me_ you needed time alone, you just up and vanished!”

“Well I’m _sorry_ that I didn’t run everything by you!” Loki mocked, “I was unaware I was your prized pet!”

“Gar! You know that that’s not what I mean! I _cared_ about you, and you made me worry!” Thor shouted. “I’m not surprised that you think that way! All you’ve ever cared about is yourself!”

“_Excuse me!?_” Loki didn’t have it in him to be tactical at this point.

“You heard me! You know, I swear, that’s what ended this whole thing- you being selfish! All you ever cared about was yourself!”

“How _dare_ you!? I have done _so much_ for you! Things that you will **_never_** be able to fathom!”

“You expect me to believe that!? You’re a _vile creature_, Loki! You’re incapable of love!”

“Fine Thor,” Loki said, his tone icy, eerily quiet given their screaming match, but even as it stood his voice was picking up volume. “Fine. You want this so bad, don’t you? One more reason to think of me as the monster lurking in Hliðskjálf’s halls. You want to know the _original sin_, the domino that caused all the others to fall!?” Loki was near hysterical now. “_I got pregnant, with _**_your son_**_, and I had to have an abortion in Vanaheim so that nobody would ever know! _**_ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!!?”_**

You could have heard a pin drop. Loki (or at least his image) was gone the moment he said those words.

Thor stood, frozen.

Natasha, Valkyrie and Heimdall were all in similar states. Eventually, however, Heimdall unfroze. He stood up.

“Heimdall. Did you know about this?” Thor’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Nay, my liege. I knew that whatever he did, only that it caused him distress and was a highly suspicious activity. I never reported it to your father as I had great doubt that whatever he’d done he’d do again… but I had no idea…”

.

Mary was supposed to start school the next day.

“Ma… where going?”

“Somewhere else,” Loki threw objects at random into his little space pocket. “Somewhere far away.”

“Why?”

“To start a new life. We’re going on an adventure, Mary!” He faked a smile for her, but his tired eyes ruined the effect of it. “Just you, me, and your siblings!”

“Pa?”

“In time,” he lied. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to contact Peter. Not when there was the risk of Thor knowing where to find him.

And he could never say Thor’s name again. Ever.

He wanted to collapse to the ground and start crying. All of this- _all of it_, had started because he wanted his ex-lover’s eyes back on him, because he’d wanted Thor’s love back. It really had snowballed, hadn’t it?

.

“Well? I assume that you’ve come here to tell me off or something,” Thor grumbled, staring out the window of his room.

“No,” his oldest friend shook his head. “I came here because I know how hard this must be for you.”

“What do you mean?” Thor’s head snapped to the side, his body not-quite twisting, to give the effect of feigned interest when really Thor was just too out of it to move all that much. “Nothing is hard for me.”

“You lost a _child_, Thor- and here Loki is revealing that you’ve lost another one, one you never even knew about.”

“Bah! It was never born, it was never re-”

“Thor,” Heimdall bridged the distance between them, cupping Thor’s face in his hands, and staring fiercely and courageously on into Thor’s eyes. “Thor, it’s _okay_.”

And then it all came gushing out like a dam. Not tears, no, though there were a few. Rather the pent up tension that New York City had been feeling in the form of a thunderstorm all afternoon.

“He never told me!” Thor’s voice was distraught. “**_He never told me!”_** Lightning flashed hard outside. A lesser creature would have been afraid, but not Heimdall.

“Thor… I know this is hard… but try to see things from his perspective. Had you known, would you have wanted to keep the baby?”

“Yes! Of course!”

“Which was why he didn’t tell you. He already knew he didn’t want it and wasn’t going to carry it, what point was there in you knowing?”

Thor froze for a moment, and this time the tears did come. “Except that he _did_ want it- **_him_**! Of course he did! He wouldn’t have cared about the gender _or_ keeping it a secret! He was ashamed of what he did! And of course he was, he probably would have kept it but for fear of social backlash!” For the first time ever, Thor felt something close to hate for his parents and people. Of course only Loki could stir up those feelings within him. “I need to talk to him, but…”

“But what?”

Thor sighed. What would he even say to him? Apparently he had voiced that one aloud.

“Tell him you love him. Tell him you want him back too, _because you do_!”

“No!” Thor froze. What was Heimdall on about? “No, I don’t. He’s my _brother,_ and I’m with **_Jane_**.”

“Then why haven’t you proposed yet?” No answer. “You’ve had the ring for over a year now.”

“My life is in shambles, this isn’t the right moment,” Thor protested.

“Isn’t it? Because the last I checked, Idunn’s Apples don’t _restore_ youth, they _preserve it_, and only Asgardians may partake of the fruit. By keeping Jane unmarried, you’re letting her age. I’d argue that the soonest time would be the best, and yet you keep putting your ‘eventual wedding off’. For who? _For Loki_!”

“He’s my family! He’s the only family I have left!”

“Is he? Last I checked, Hela was still in Helheim, trapped there by Surtur burning her bodily flesh. You could pay her a visit, and she’s _actually_ related to you.”

“Forget it, you don’t understand!”

“Don’t I? Thor, I’ve watched you and Loki grow from infancy to adulthood. I’d argue that I understand better than any other…” Heimdall’s deep, dark eyes pierced through Thor’s soul. “Even better than you.”


	23. Chapter 23

Thor couldn’t locate Loki at his apartment. But that didn’t deter him. He would search the ends of the earth for Loki, a thousand times over.

And search he did. He didn’t get his friends to help. He didn’t want them to be the first ones to confront his brother… ex-lover… ex… it was all getting too complicated. He needed this. He needed to talk to Loki. They’d left things unsettled far too long, it was a shame that it took them two years of pure hell to realise that.

And find Loki he did. In a little café in Paris, France, a full two years later, with Mary and Hel… and no trace of the boys which was odd.

Loki didn’t spot him until he was barricading the entrance. It had been two years. Thor had thought of a million and one things that he would like to say once he saw his brother, but all that fell out of his mouth was: “Loki.” The name like a boat pushed off of a waterfall.

“Thor,” Loki breathed. The room froze.

Mary, who was four years old by now, beamed. “Thor!”

Loki glared at his daughter.

“Brother… I’ve come to bring you home,” Thor begged.

Loki’s demeanour changed. He stiffened. “No. I’m not going. And stop calling me ‘brother’, Thor… we’re not- brothers, we’re not _brothers_.”

Loki could not have anticipated Thor’s reply in a million years. “No,” he agreed, chuckling sadly. “I don’t suppose that’s the right word. It was _never_ the right word. We’ve always been so much more than that,” his breath was coming short as he choked up on his own words. It was frustrating, he had _so much_ that he wanted to say, **_so many things_** he wanted to tell Loki:

_Ssh, it’s going to be okay._

_It wasn’t your fault._

_I’m so sorry_.

A million things to say. A thousand years too late. A thousand years too late. How on earth was he ever going to make up for it? _Could_ he ever make up for it? For all the emotional weight that Loki had been touting by himself for a **_thousand years_**!

“Loki. I love you. And- it hurt, it really did hurt, when you started to… to be distant. But Loki I had _no idea_, and you should have told me, I wish you’d just told me.”

And suddenly they weren’t in the café anymore. They were in what Thor could only assume to be Loki’s apartment. And Loki was there, shoving a warm cup of tea into his trembling hands. Silly Loki, everyone knew he didn’t like tea. The cup wobbled. Thor didn’t feel any pain as the scalding hot water hit his bare hand.

“It does not do well to dwell on the past.”

“Did running halfway across the world help you to show that?”

“Did you _really _spend two years _tracking me_ halfway across the world to bicker, brother?”

And like that, Thor could not childishly jump and call Loki out for calling him his brother after saying that they weren’t really brothers. Not that Thor had intended to do that.

“Why?” Thor asked, finally. “I mean, I’ve had my suspicions, but I need to know, Loki… why did you do it? Did you not want it? And you still could have told me.”

Loki simply shrugged, face hard-set, unwilling to share anything. _Unwilling or unable_, Thor pondered to himself. “It was and remains unimportant. And besides, what would it have changed? You knowing or not, that is. I knew that you’d be upset, and the deed was already done… it wasn’t like it would have impacted you if you hadn’t known.”

“But it impacted _you_, Loki. And it did- it _did_ impact me. Loki… I can’t imagine what you went through… but I’m certain that it hurt you a lot. And- I… I fear that you haven’t- that you never gave yourself the chance to grieve, and I-I just think you need to-”

“To what, Thor, _grieve_?” Loki’s voice was cold, harsh, sharp, _fierce_. “Grieve _what_ exactly? The years of ridicule we would have all faced, the baby included? Our parents’ disavowment? How can you, **_foolish as you are_**, sit there and tell me that Módi would have made our lives _any better_!?”

“Módi?” Thor’s voice choked.

“I remembered how much you liked the name,” it was barely more than a whisper.

And just like that, one slip of the tongue, the floodgates were open.

Loki crumpled to the couch, Thor cradled him. Nobody had seen any of the children in a half hour, but that was irrelevant. Thor soothed his sobbing brother, murmuring words of comfort into his ear. _[They]’d be fine._

They’d be fine.

.

Loki woke up, having had fallen asleep on the brother he hadn’t seen in two years’ chest. His heart seized with panic. Where were Mary and Hel!? Had he remembered to bring them home from the café!?

He realised then, in that moment, what had woken him up. Mary had left the fridge open and had forgotten to close it. Her tiny feet toddled over to it. Loki got up to help her, waking Thor up as well.

“Unca Thor!” Thor heard a little, unfamiliar voice chirp. Hel could speak!? Hel, he’d missed out on too much! He’d also probably have to retire that phrase because of Loki’s poor naming choices. Silly sentimental Loki, you don’t name children after your evil-foster-sister!

_But neither should you name them after your brother’s whims either. Neither should you keep grief to yourself. Never, ever, _**_ever_**_, put me through that again, Loki, I can’t bear the pain of seeing you hold in something so terrible_. He sent a prayer to his father for Loki to start feeling better. He really hoped their comfort session on the couch earlier would help his brother come to terms with it.

“Hel!” Thor picked up his youngest niece in one hand, shaking her in the air until she squealed. Thor thought it was delightful.

Loki did not.

“Thor! Put her _down_! She is not a ragdoll! You’ll hurt her!” Loki scolded.

“You’re such a big girl now!” He fussed. “How old are you?” okay, even he had to admit that his voice might sound overly childish at the moment, but he really didn’t care!

“‘m _four_!” meh, close enough.

“_I’m_ four, idiot! **_You’re_** three!” Mary rolled her eyes.

“_What_ have I told you two about fighting!?” Thor thought that the statement was a little unfair given how Hel wasn’t fighting.

Meanie.

.

And later in the afternoon, when they’d put the girls to sleep (Loki had told him, sadly, that he’d had to leave Fenrir with Sleipnir and Jormungandr in the ocean. The boys had grown too big to keep around anymore. Now he only ever got to see them on weekends [Loki had, at first, tried living near Jor, for fear that he would get lonely, but ultimately realised that that was unfair on both of them as it didn’t allow Jor the opportunity to travel the ocean and get better acquainted with his new home, and if Loki spent all day there, who would raise Mary and Hel?]), Loki turned and asked Thor the question that he’d been dreading.

“Well, what do you intend to do now?”

What _was_ he intending to do now? Marry Loki? No, wait, that would just sound weird if he said it. He definitely wanted to start a relationship with him again. He’d thought about it often as he spent two years of his life searching for Loki, had thought about Heimdall’s words and how right they were, had broken up with Jane. Did any of that matter, though? Because what if Loki didn’t want _him_ back?

All the while he was thinking, Loki was staring at Thor, trying to read his brother. What on Midgard could Thor be _here_ for? Loki didn’t dare get his hopes up that Thor was interested in pursuing a relationship with them. He’d realised that night, when he kissed Thor ‘because he was drunk’ that Thor well and truly didn’t want him like that anymore. And honestly, he was fine with it. Really. Fine.

_Fine._

_“_I don’t know,” Thor finally answered, truthfully. It was the best answer he _could_ give.

“How fares Asgard?”

Thor shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I made Valkyrie queen.”

“Wise choice… are you not afraid that she doesn’t carry the Odin Force?”

“She doesn’t need the Odin Force, she’s a _Valkyrie_.”

“True, true,” Loki hummed. “So you have no obligations, now?”

“Untrue, I still have my obligation towards you,” Thor teased.

“Mmm? Is that so?” Loki cocked a brow.

“Indeed.”

“Anything else? No saving the world?”

“The demand for that has fallen dramatically since you’ve retired as a villain.”

“Hmmm, I suppose.” Loki sat down next to him,

It was now or never. The kiss was barely longer than a heartbeat, but to Thor it spanned a millennium. A full millennium of untold grief, of love, of loss, of heartache…

“Thor,” Loki breathed, “Thor- what? What did you- what does this mean, brother? Are you- this is _wr-_”

“I broke up with Jane,” Thor confessed. “I broke up with her because… because Heimdall told me that I was in love with you. And at first I didn’t believe it-but then he pointed out that I’d intended to propose to her for over a year, but-but I never did that, and I always thought that the reason was just ‘because the time wasn’t right’, except that that’s a stupid reason when your girlfriend is mortal and ageing and your marriage would preserve her lifespan, and yet even when Heimdall pointed this all out to me, I didn’t feel any urge to jump into marriage with her- I _just wanted to find you_. And don’t you see, Loki? I _always_ just want to find you. Even when I was with _Sif_ I couldn’t stop thinking about you? And I thought it was just because I’d just gotten out of my first proper relationship, but that doesn’t explain why it kept happening with Helga and Artma and Jula and Fulla! That was why I was so happy when we slept together, the night before my coronation, when I thought we were going to get back together- I thought that because we’d decided this all when we were older and more mature, that it was meant to be- but then… but then you ruined my coronation and that really hurt me, only a little because you were my brother, but mostly because I thought… because I thought that it meant that we _weren’t_ meant to be, that the Norns had decided against our union, that it was unholy because it was incest- remember, I still thought that we shared biological parents back then- except that then I found out that you weren’t my brother, but the betrayal hurt more than thinking that the Norns had decided against us, because that was _you_ deciding that you were against us, Loki, and that-that _did_ hurt, and it was unfair and it felt _so right_ locking you behind that cell, I’m not going to lie, it _did…_ but then I started to miss you, and I saw how mother still talked to you, and I must admit that I grew envious. And then mother died… and I needed you more than ever, but I would have needed permission to see you, and father wasn’t in those days, he was ‘ill’, so I came up with a reason to see you- and of course I wanted my revenge as well, _of course_, but I could have done it alone, I just-I didn’t think that it would be fair on you… I wasn’t going to return you, I swear, but then you ‘died’ on me… and then I found out that you _weren’t_ dead, and around that time I just started getting really mad at everything that you did. And then there was Sakaar. I didn’t know if Hela tossing you out of the Bifrost like that had killed you or not… but seeing you there, with _him_… it honestly felt a hundred times worse than losing you would have felt. He was so disgusting. No clue what you saw in him, but then you helped me save Asgard (eventually), and I thought that when we got back to Midgard we _might_ try rekindling what we had, that you had _changed_. But then you slept with Peter, and I know that you did it in part to seduce me, which only added to my hatred of it- because you just-you_ use_ people, Loki, and it’s _wrong_! And then the porn, and then. You were _pregnant_! And then Angrboda came along and you were _pregnant _**_again_**, and after all that I’ve learned, in hindsight I’m not as jealous that they weren’t my children… but at the time, yes, I’ll admit, that despite being with Jane, despite having had my first child stolen by Jarnsaxa, I love your children as though they are my own… and they could be, in time….” Thor poured this all out so fast that Loki barely had time to process a word.

“Uh… what?”

“Will you go on a date with me?”

“Ummm… okay?”


	24. Chapter 24

And of course everything was just bliss after that! Why wouldn’t it be? It wasn’t like there were any loose ends left untied, right?

Jarnsaxa watched, satisfied, as the Winds of Jotunheim wrapped themselves around Magni’s finger. They had thought that Jarnsaxa would be having twins, but no- he had had just one child, one child born with _two hearts_! A strong warrior already, at age three… he would be a force to be reckoned with in due course, unlike those pathetic offspring the runtling had borne Angrboda. Tsk, his old friend had deserved better. Maybe he would have gotten better had he the chance to breed the little bitch again, but alas they would never know as _Thor_ had slain the poor man in his own home.

Jarnsaxa watched Magni with a self-satisfied grin. That was alright, of course. For in due course, Angrboda’s death alongside that of Laufey’s would be avenged.

And who better to carry it out than Thor’s own son?

.

Two years into their relationship and Loki was itching to tell Thor the news.

_Pregnant_. He was pregnant _again_. This time with the right man’s child!

“Brother… _Thor_… I have something to tell you,” his voice fell low. “Thor… I’m pregnant.”

Thor’s eyes bulged. “Then we must get married immediately!”

“Wait, _what_?” Loki had _not_ been expecting that reaction.

“Married, Loki!”

“Thor, we’re not getting married just because I’m pregnant.”

“Why not?” Thor looked genuinely confused.

“Because that is a ridiculous reason to get married!”

“No it is not! You would have me dishonour you and the child!?”

“Are you implying that Peter dishonoured me by fathering Mary?”

Yes. “We are not of the same culture as him… and besides, we _have_ been dating for two years! Think about all the stability that it would bring in our lives, Loki, and this child-to-be’s life too.”

They wound up settling on a maybe.

That night, however, as Loki slept, he was awoken by a loud, piercing scream. _Hel_!

He rushed to his daughter’s room, Thor hot on his heels. Shit, shit, shit, he’d worried about the Jotnar coming to exact their revenge on them, but what he saw was one hundred times worse.

He smelled the rotting flesh before he saw it. Sitting up in bed was a four-year-old half-girl, her other half looked otherworldly, dead if Loki had to put his finger on it, like a zombie.

“Mama!” Hel sobbed. “Mama, I’m _dead_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End!
> 
> In case you haven't already guessed, there WILL be a sequel out sometime or the other. Also, I'll probably log onto my old laptop and post more 'GBE' chapters sometime this month. Stay tuned! :)


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